HP might have a need to have this supported. A case could certainly be made to have Gnu C/C++ available for the OpenVMS platform to enhance the viability of the platform, I would think.
It can get a bit more interesting, as OpenVMS on Itanium uses ELF files for objects and executables. There have been some extensions that have been provided.
So there may be a possibility of building VMS binaries including executables, objects, and shared images on other IA64 systems.
Or the reverse.
The problem with volunteers maintaining GCC on OpenVMS is that the HP C compilers are free for hobbyists so there is little incentive for anyone to work on it.
I don't have a clue how to go about making this case to HP, however. They're already doing a lot of kind of work with Apache, PHP, Java... so, it might be hard to get their attention.
The issue with open source is the funding of the people that work on it.
The business case to HP would have to show enough revenue and profits to cover the salaries of anyone working on it. Would enough people be willing to purchase a support contract to cover ongoing maintenance?
In some cases it may be more of an opportunity for a third party to sell support services and become a DSPP partner.
-John [EMAIL PROTECTED] Personal Opinion Only
