[binutils-owner] Removing vax-vms in bfd

[mpsuzuki@hiroshima-u.ac.jp]

On Tue, 9 Mar 2010 14:22:26 +0100
Tristan Gingold <gingold@adacore.com> wrote:
>I propose to remove the support of vax-vms in bfd.  In fact the top level configure.ac has already these
>lines:
>
>  vax-*-vms)
>    noconfigdirs="$noconfigdirs bfd binutils gdb ld target-newlib opcodes target-libgloss ${libgcj}"
>    ;;
>
>So I suppose nobody has built it for a while.

I have to agree.

>From what I can see from the code, it is bit-rotten.
>Furthermore, I can't even test it (no VAX machines).

Me too. Yet I couldn't raise my hand as a tester for
VMS/VAX port. However, it is possible to obtain official
copy of OpenVMS/VAX via hobbyist program and install
it on VAX simulator,

http://www.wherry.com/gadgets/retrocomputing/vax-simh.html

so the life of VMS/VAX is slightly better than other
discontinued systems on discontinued CPUs (e.g. m88k).

>Any objections ?

If your proposal is just to remove (or comment-out)
the detection of vms_vax_vec, I have no strong objection. 
It would be easy to revert when VMS/VAX tester comes.
But if any *.c & *.h would be modified, I wish if some
grace period is given. I will try to contact some VAX
users for their comments...

Regards,
mpsuzuki