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From: drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: Re: PL/I, was Parser generator
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:19:13 -0600
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Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.compilers:413

 > Are there PL/I compilers available for modern platforms? E.g. Windows,
 > Linux 32 and 64 bit Intel, sparc, power pc, etc....  (I see there was
 > a start at one for GCC.)

There are a few commercial ones.  IBM supports Windows, OS/2, AIX I
think.  Iron Spring's is in beta and available for Linux and Windows.
One of the big compiler outfits whose identity is escaping me right
now has one for Windows, at least.

The pl1gcc effort seems to have stalled a couple of years ago.
A shame; I was looking forward to being able to use it.  (So of course
I should have contributed to help keep it going.  Sigh.)

 > Is there a reason to prefer PL/I over C++ or Java?

For the project I'm planning, "modern" isn't a valid limitation,
and C++/Java are not available on all the platforms.

In general, for new development on modern platforms, I would think
it'd be hard to guarantee long-term ability to hire programmers to
do anything in PL/I, more's the pity.

De