Charles Mills wrote:
>There was an MVS C compiler in the pre-LE days. It was a port of
>one of the common C compilers -- I am trying to remember the
>vendor. Lattice C -- I think that's it.
Here's some historical information I found from various sources. IBM's first C
compiler for MVS was IBM Program Number 5713-AAG ("C for System/370"). IBM C
for System/370 was announced on August 11, 1986, as a licensed and chargeable
program product with a planned availability date of "September, 1986." Here's a
link to the announcement letter:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/archive/ENUS286-359
MVS/SP Version 1 Release 3 was the minimum supported MVS release level. There
was also a compiler and library for VM, and the compiler was source and object
code compatible between IBM operating systems.
There was a late 1987 service refresh described in this announcement letter
that curiously didn't trigger any increment to the release or version number:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/archive/ENUS287-429
But maybe not so curiously because the next compiler was IBM Program No.
5688-040 ("IBM C/370 Compiler") announced in 1988:
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/archive/ENUS288-467
The previous 1986/1987 compiler reached End of Service on December 31, 1989. In
a subsequent announcement IBM intimated that at least their first C compiler's
library was not Year 2000 ready.
IBM's first C compiler for MVS was allegedly based on a C compiler from a
vendor named Whitesmiths, based in Westford, Massachusetts. Whitesmiths became
part of Intermetrics. Intermetrics changed its name to AverStar. AverStar
merged with Titan Corporation, and then L-3 Communications acquired Titan
Corporation. L-3 Communications changed its name to L3 Technologies. Then L3
Technologies merged with Harris Corporation and is now known as L3Harris
Technologies. So that's all quite simple. :-)
Maybe L3Harris Technologies still holds the copyright to the original
Whitesmiths C compiler and library for MVS.
I wonder how far back the Dignus compilers can reach.
?????
Timothy Sipples
Senior Architect
Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cybersecurity
IBM Z/LinuxONE, Asia-Pacific
[email protected]
+65 8526 7454 Mobile
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