SGI: Development

Dumb question but better to ask than find out the hard way ... The Irix Pascal compiler was apparently less than optimum but it must have worked to some extent, yes ? And it only runs on 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4 But assuming one set aside some little box such as an Indy with 6.2 and built binaries there, the executable programs should run in 6.5. ...

Is that correct or am I overlooking something obvious ?

That compiler is for ISO/ANSI Pascal. It won't compile Turbo Pascal code.

Otherwise it should work.

isn't there some half-assed GNU pascal to c wrapper like they do for fortran.

@ hamei Curious: as you have discovered A+ - what projects are you working on for which Pascal [Irix or otherwise] might still be better suited?

p2c or gpc....?? No. they are both fully assed.

If it is COFF then it will not work on latter than 6.4. In the other thread, apparently SAQ didn't get it but foetz has a sense of humor. Run the command "file" on the binary... If it says DWARF or ELF you are in business.

6.1. ECOFF was obsoleted in 6.2



Seems few people admire extreme dryness anymore. I suppose few got my "deal with the devil" joke either.

Let me try to answer all in one, like an ATi card ...

Occasionally I run across some old Pascal code that might be fun to run. If it compiles in 6.2, for instance, and runs elsewhere it might be worth the trouble to set up an outlier box. Someone offerred me a Pascal compiler CD which is what brought this up. Pymble, your method would definitely work but I'm trying to avoid all the extraneous work by asking first. This is a new experiment for me, I'll admit. Usually it's SAQ's motto that prevails

About the COFF thing, you caused some interesting speculation. You are right, the R3000 SGI's only run up to 5.3 ? Which would be coff binaries ? Except I do have mips3 binaries (or at least they claim they are in the titles) which run in 6.5.30. ELF.

Hmm. Why would people do that ? Of course the mips3 switch in the compiler involves only the instruction set used so natcherly it can produce elf binaries that you can run on 6.5.30. But if the only processors the app will see (due to the file format) can use mips4 instructions, why did people avoid it ? As an example, I'm pretty sure that mxaudio, which I've used for years, is compiled -mips3.

Either that or rhoenie screwed up, which is like saying God made a mistake ...

Quite interesting, logically. Considerating the current state of our world, that old guy/gal up there most surely blunders on a daily basis. But down here on earth, rhoenie might be better off, perhaps...

I learned Pascal on a Control Data Corporation Cyber 720/120 mainframe at school and though it was pretty neat. Pointers, Linked Lists, creating your own Data Types. Oh the power and I loved the modularity compared to Fortran 4/5, MNF Fortran, etc. Much, much later Turbo Pascal came out. I got to see "Mr Borland" Philippe Kahn giving a small presentation in Salt Lake City for the release of Paradox 4.0 databases (about 1992).

Anyway there was a version of IRIX Pascal that sold ages ago on Ebay but I was outbid and I had questions about how the licensing worked.

Did it have any additional bells and whistles, speed, what did it compile to MIPS 3/4 or even PCODE.

I'd like to hear more about the IRIX version and any commerical programs that may have been coded in PASCAL.

Okay, I admit to having obtained and much, much later purchasing Pascal for my Commodore 64. Yes, I even did some of my college programming homework (early 80s) on my C64 in Pascal, COMAL and of course Basic.

thegoldbug

IRIX 5.0/5.1 (they were released simultaneously) introduced the ELF format and DSOs to IRIX (what would become the o32 ABI once they had multiple 32-bit ELF ABIs). ECOFF was used in earlier versions of IRIX and, I imagine, GL2-W. ECOFF support was maintaned (for both building and executing) through IRIX 5.3, which would include IRIX 6.0, 6.0.1 and 6.1 (though I have heard that support is incomplete in IRIX 6.1). It was removed starting with IRIX 6.2. The default with IDO 5.x is to build ELF, with ECOFF support in there primarily for people who used a 5.x only machine (IP22, IP19) as a build machine for IRIX 4.x binaries. Some software was ECOFF only in the 5.x era (most notably the PS RIP for Impressario 1.x), but most was ELF or shipped with ECOFF and ELF, since ELF had some useful tricks that IRIX ECOFF didn't have (DSOs for one).

Since IRIX 5.x introduced many other advantages (OpenGL and X11R5 for one), there was incentive for developers to move to IRIX 5/ELF from the older IRIX 4/ECOFF format.

I don't think the old ECOFF compiler did anything other than MIPS1 code, so if it's MIPS-3 it's ELF.

It's been a while since I played with it, but I seem to recall that binaries I created with the MIPSpro 7.1 Pascal compiler worked okay on IRIX 6.5.

Come to think of it, I have IRIX 6.2 installed on my Crimson. Next time I have it powered up I'll install Pascal and compile a test binary.

I did some early IT training on Control Data stuff too. Only CDC-110s.
I didn't get into COMAL much, I did buy it new.
Was that when Mr Kahn was still an illegal alien, as he was for much of the life of Frank Borland.

I have most of the Borland collection, Turbo editor toolbox, database toolbox, game works, numerical toolbox, graphics toolbox, probably others and Turbo Pascal 5.5

... and now back to the topic....