Some z/OS comp;onents are still written in the language of IBM's HLASM, but much of it is written in PL/X, which is also a PL/I dialect but which unlike PL/S does a great deal of optimizing before it emits assembly language.
Many of you will find this view uncongenial, but PL/X is in fact a much better language for systems- software implementation than C or, particularly, C++.
IBM has never released mainframe PL/X for others to use; this policy is, however, under review; its syntax is no longer 'secret' (There will in fact be a SHARE session on it next week); and it may in the fairly near future be licensable.
Even so, it is unlikely to be a useful implementation vehicle for generic Linux components because the likelihood of non-IBM implementations of it is negligible.
John Gilmore SystemCraft LLC
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