Kednos

PL/I for OpenVMS and Tru64


1.Welcome	Kednos has closed its doors!, What is PL/I?
2.Documentation	Kednos PL/I for OpenVMS, Kednos PL/I for Tru64 UNIX, Integration Products
2.1Articles
3.Integration	Overview, Examples
3.1SDL	Overview, Software, Documentation
3.2Java	Overview, Software, Documentation, Examples
4.Hobbyist	Overview, Public Access, Emulated/Simulated Systems, Links
5.Kits
6.Examples
7.Resources	PL/I Software, Mailing Lists & Newsgroups, Games
7.1Editors
7.2Code Management	Concurrent Version System, Code Management System, Mercurial, Subversion
7.3Benchmarks
7.4Rexx	Overview, NetRexx, Links
8.Site Map
9.Contact

1. Welcome

Kednos has closed its doors!

After many years supplying PL/I compilers to OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX users around the world, from October 2016, Kednos will cease trading. The PL/I compilers, run-time libraries and integration tools will no longer be updated or supported by Kednos. Licenses for commercial purposes can still be obtained on an "as is" basis, here.

This website will remain as a place to download software kits for those still holding valid licenses. It is also still possible to request a hobbyist license and use the compilers in a non-commercial capacity.

What is PL/I?

PL/I is a powerful high-level programming language that is a superior alternative to using Fortran for scientific applications, COBOL for commercial applications and C for systems programming. Enjoy using the King of Programming Languages and don't worry about buffer overrun exploits.

Why should you use PL/I? Find out! How does PL/I compare to C?

From this site you may download both documentation and kits for the PL/I compiler for OpenVMS for both Alpha and VAX. As well as PL/I Run-Time Library kits for OpenVMS VAX, Alpha and I64. Also, you may download the kits for the PL/I compiler for Tru64.

*For an etymology of Kednos see the Perseus Project.

2. Documentation

This page is the starting point for accessing documentation for all Kednos software products.

All manuals are produced using either DECdocument from Touch Technologies, Inc. or Javadoc from Oracle.

Kednos PL/I for OpenVMS

The following documentation is related to all versions of Kednos PL/I for OpenVMS on all supported architectures.

Software Product Description PDF|PS|HTML
Installation Guide PDF|PS|HTML
User Manual PDF|PS|HTML
Reference Manual PDF|PS|HTML

Documentation for HP OpenVMS is available in HTML and PDF format from HP here.

All documentation for all OpenVMS products (including Integration products) can be downloaded below as a single saveset.as a single savset. It is possible that the BACKUP savset file attributes may be scrambled. To correct this download the DCL procedure, RESET_BACKUP_SAVSET_ATTRIBUTES.COM and execute it, passing the saveset name as the first parameter.

OpenVMS Products Documentation Bundle ZIP|BCK

Kednos PL/I for Tru64 UNIX

The following documentation is related to all versions of Kednos PL/I for Tru64 UNIX (formerly Digital UNIX and OSF/1).

Installation Guide HTML
User's Manual HTML
Reference Manual HTML

Documentation for HP Tru64 UNIX is available in HTML and PDF format from HP here.

Integration Products

The documentation for all integration products can be found on their respective pages. The links below will take you to the documentation for the relevant product.

2.1 Articles

Date	Article
29 Jul 2009	OpenVMS I64 TIE Internals: Emulating Alpha Control Instructions HTML\|PDF
	This article, published in the OpenVMS Technical Journal V13, is intended as the first in a series of articles detailing as finely as possible the internals of the Translated Image Environment for OpenVMS I64. This particular article covers the emulation of Alpha control instructions. It describes both local and non-local jumps as well as emulated and translated branches.
22 Jun 2009	WSIT and J2VMS: A Comparative Analysis HTML\|PDF
	This article attempts to compare the features of Kednos' Java-to-VMS Toolkit and HP's Web Services Integration Toolkit as a method for calling native OpenVMS routines from a Java environment. *This article was submitted to the OpenVMS Technical Journal, but rejected on the grounds that this journal does not publish articles comparing products.
28 Jan 2009	Calling OpenVMS Native Routines From Java HTML\|PDF
	This article, published in the OpenVMS Technical Journal V12, is a brief introduction and tutorial on the use of a collection of tools offered by Kednos intended to make it easier for Java and native code to interact. Although Kednos' primary business is PL/I compilers, the tools described in this article can be used to interface Java with any native OpenVMS language that adheres to the common calling standard.

3. Integration

Overview

The following sections provide a range of tools and libraries for integrating PL/I on OpenVMS with other native languages. Although all native languages on OpenVMS adhere to the common calling standard, there are some situations where building up the necessary modules and include files can be a large and drawn out task. The tools offered here attempt to ease this difficulty.

The following tools and libraries are currently available:

J2VMS, a interface between the Java Virtual Machine and the native calling standard of OpenVMS,
SDLEXT, a collection of Structure Definition Language (SDL) compiler backends that generate output for Java (to be used with J2VMS) and other languages;

Use the menu on the left hand side to navigate to the language integration you are interested in.

In many situations the tools presented here are as useful to other languages as they are PL/I. For example, the J2VMS Java->OpenVMS interface can be used to call routines and manipulate data structures from any language.

Examples

The following is a growing collection of complete working examples that attempt to properly demonstrate the use of these integration tools.

Phone Book
This example demonstrates the calling of OpenVMS native routines from Java, as well as the manipulation of data structures. The original program is an example PL/I application called PHONE (not to be confused with the OpenVMS PHONE utility). It is a simple progam that presents an example for file I/O and screen management as a phone book. For the purpose of demonstrating the integration utilities the file access routines were extracted and put into a run-time library. A Java-Swing application was then developed that uses this RTL to access and update the phone book file. The main objectives were to: move the application to a Java-Swing based frontend, re-use the existing file access routines, avoid any major changes to the original application, allow the original application to continue being used in parallel with the new Java application. All of these objectives were met and the whole process is demonstrated in the article, Calling Native OpenVMS Routines from Java. A backup saveset containing the full source for both the PL/I and Java-Swing applications can be downloaded here. The saveset is also available inside a ZIP file here.
PHONE - The original PL/I application
Source:
	BUILD_PHONE.COM	Build Procedure.
	CONSTANTS.PLI	Some helpful constants (include file).
	DATABASE.PLI	Utility routines for working with the phone book file.
	ENTRY.PLI	Database entry record definition (include file).
	KEYS.PLI	Keypad constants (include file).
	OPERATIONS.PLI	Menu operation constants (include file).
	PHONE.FDL	Phone book database file.
	PHONE.PLI	Main program.
	SCREEN.PLI	Screen handling support routines.
Description:	The PHONE utility (not to be confused with the OpenVMS PHONE utility) is a simple phone/address book utility that maintains it's data in an indexed file. It originally appeared in the Kednos PL/I for OpenVMS example program library that ships with the compiler.
Build Instructions:	The following build instructions, as well as building the PHONE utility, also build the run-time library necessary to implement the jPhone utility shown below. `$ TYPE BUILD_PHONE.COM` `$ PLI PHONE` `$ PLI DATABASE $ PLI SCREEN $ LINK/SHARE=DATABASE_RTL.EXE,SYS$INPUT/OPTIONSYMBOL_VECTOR = ( - OPEN_PHONEBOOK = PROCEDURE, - CLOSE_PHONEBOOK = PROCEDURE, - GET_A_RECORD = PROCEDURE, - GET_A_MONTH_RECORD = PROCEDURE, - GET_A_DATE_RECORD = PROCEDURE, - WRITE_A_RECORD = PROCEDURE, - DELETE_A_RECORD = PROCEDURE -` `) $ DEFINE/NOLOG DATABASE_RTL SYS$DISK:[]DATABASE_RTL $ LINK PHONE,SCREEN,SYS$INPUT/OPTIONS DATABASE_RTL/SHARE $ IF (F$SEARCH("PHONE.DAT") .EQS. "") THEN CREATE/FDL=PHONE.FDL $ EXIT 1` `$ @BUILD_PHONE.COM`
jPhone - The Java/Swing version of PHONE.
Source:	Database.java (javadoc)	Java class interface to the native DATABASE_RTL run-time library.
	DATABASEDEF.java	Java class generated from DATABASEDEF.SDL. It details the record structure of the phone book database file and the native routines found in DATABASE_RTL.
	DATABASEDEF.SDL	SDL header file, generated from DATABASE.PLI (above).
	EntryPanel.java	Panel for manipulating phone book entries.
	EventPanel.java	Panel for querying the phone book for upcoming events.
	JPhone.java	Main application.
Description:	This application is the Java/Swing based version of the PHONE utility. It uses J2VMS to interface with the DATABASE_RTL run-time library so it can manipulate the same data file in a way that can be viewed by either the Java or native application.
Build Instructions:	$ TYPE BUILD_JPHONE.COM $ set noon $ on control_y then goto bail_out $ $ set process/parse_style=extended $ define/nolog decc$efs_case_preserve enable $ define/nolog decc$efs_case_special enable $ define/nolog decc$efs_charset enable $ define/nolog decc$argv_parse_style enable $ $ jc = "''javac' -classpath - " + """/sys$library/j2vms$vs.jar:./bin"" -d ""./bin""" $ $ set verify $ $ ! Database Interface $ jc Database.java $ jc DATABASEDEF.java $ $ ! Supporting classes $ jc UpperCaseField.java $ $ ! Application $ jc EntryPanel.java $ jc EventPanel.java $ jc JPhone.java $ $ set noverify $ $ jphone == "''java' -classpath " - + """/sys$library/j2vms$vs.jar:./bin"" com.kednos.jphone.JPhone" `$` `$ write sys$output "Type: ""jphone"" to run"` `$bail_out:` `$ set noverify` `$ exitt 1` `$ @``BUILD_JPHONE.COM`

3.1 SDL

Overview

Structure Definition Language (or SDL) is a language for defining data structures, constants, external symbols and entry points. The SDL compiler is a tool for taking those definitions and generating language specific include files.

The SDLEXT product offers a collection of backends that generate output for the following languages:

Java, for use with the J2VMS interface
XML Schema Definition.

Software

SDLEXT ships in a combined PCSI kit. This means that the single kit contains software that will install on OpenVMS VAX, Alpha and I64.

SDLEXT V2.0 PCSI software kit PCSI|ZIP.

The SDL compiler kit is available on the OpenVMS Freeware distribution. It is also available online here. The last release (EV1-65) of ALPHA_SDL can also be downloaded (including source) from here.

Documentation

The following documentation covers the SDLEXT software product:

SDLEXT User Guide & Release Notes HTML|PS|PDF|ZIP

All manuals are produced using DECdocument from Touch Technologies, Inc.

Documentation for the SDL compiler and language can be viewed in either HTML, PS or PDF formats. The original VAX SDL RUNOFF manual can be viewed here.

3.2 Java

Overview

J2VMS is a generic calling interface for accessing native code on OpenVMS. By using a collection of classes that mimic the argument passing mechanisms of compiled languages and a helper class that is reminiscent of LIB$CALLG it is possible to call any routine found in a shareable run-time library. Also included is the ability to manipulate OpenVMS data structures using a method similar to that offered in the BLISS programming language.

Originally conceived and written by Jim Brankin, J2VMS disappeared into obscurity for some time. Kednos has since resurrected this software package and begun active development of the interface. Below is documentation and software for the latest release.

Articles relating to J2VMS have been published in the OpenVMS Technical Journal. Calling OpenVMS Native Routines From Java was published in V12. WSIT and J2VMS: A Comparative Analysis is an unpublished article that attempts to compare the merits of HP's Web Services Integration Toolkit and Kednos' Java-to-VMS Toolkit..

Software

The following J2VMS softwar