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In a roundtable dedicated to application development tools, a representative from HP’s Language Labs in Roseville’s SST division said time and again his operations are not staffed to deliver enhancements. Developers in attendance made focused arguments about the need for 3000 language enhancements to match 64-bit advances

Randy Roten, designated by the division as spokesperson for the SST policies, told customers the current funding in language labs only covers defect repairs. But not all products are being tested for defects. Roten said new MPE/iX intrinsics aren’t being tested against all HP 3000 languages. HP’s new date intrinsics don’t work with Transact and FORTRAN as described, according to HP customers and consultants.

“You found us out,” Roten admitted in the roundtable. “No, we don’t test all of the intrinsics in all of the languages. You found a hole in our processes, an area where we made the assumption the people creating and modifying the intrinsics were testing the intrinsics with all the subsystems. We will investigate the Service Requests and consider doing repairs.”

Roten said the problem appears to be “a hole in our processes in the way we work with CSY, and I will take the action to work with my CSY partners and see what we can do to alleviate some of this problem.”

Bob Lewandowski, VP of software development for PC product distributor ASAP Software Express, stressed that COBOL enhancements are just as important as any Java advances. “I applaud HP for making investments in the 3000,” Lewandowski said. “I’m excited about using Java, but in my applications, Java’s not going to fit. For my order entry people, I need COBOL to go forward.”

Developers Winston Krieger and Stan Sieler lobbied for enhancements to the C/iX compiler, another of the languages transferred to SST from CSY several years ago. “The C compiler hasn’t had any enhancements since I’ve been paying support money for it,” Krieger said. “Mark [Klein] has done a lot of good work [to port and support] C++. I’d like to know if HP is planning to bring the HP C compiler up to date, or if they’d consider support the GNU C++ compiler, and make that the official C compiler.”

Roten said because his group has been funded “at a relatively low level” by CSY, it has no current plans to enhance the C compiler. “Most of our effort has been centered on doing defect repairs,” he said. C has had the most Service Requests filed against it of all HP compilers, but the SST operations “are not current staffed to do enhancements. They’d need to get prioritized with enhancements across the [3000] platform.”

ANSI language standards advances which are leaving the 3000 C compiler behind won’t have any impact on the SST plans either, Roten added. “We’re not in a position to be moving the languages forward to their current standards at this point,” he said. “You guys, with the right kind of effort, may be able to change that.”

CSY’s Mike Yawn said the 3000 division has evaluated bringing the GNU C++ compiler – a key element being used in porting the Netscape Web server to the 3000 – into HP as a supported product. But “there aren’t that many people doing the Posix ports of the things that need that. Those of us who are doing that have made our own arrangements with Mark” for support, Yawn explained.

The SST languages lab has worked with language groups from other HP divisions, leveraging code to make 3000 compilers more stable. But Roten said “we have not folded in the parts to bring the compilers up to date, and we’re not staffed to do that.”

“When you’ve got hardware of the future and languages of the past, you can’t really write applications of the future,” said Ken Paul of Adager.

Jim Sartain, the CSY manager whose R&D teams include Application Development solutions, said later that HP’s responses about staffing levels weren’t a satisfactory answer. For COBOL, the language in use on the majority of 3000s, the division recognizes some action is needed.

“We have been slow to develop a plan for the COBOL language,” Sartain said. “We hear the need; the COBOL compiler is used by the majority of the applications on the 3000. You should expect to see more progress on a COBOL language plan by HP World. We’re not happy with the progress we’ve made.”

When Adager’s Paul suggested it might be time to return the compilers to CSY for more attention, Sartain said in the roundtable that CSY “will take responsibility for taking action on your concerns. We acknowledge this is a critical component of the platform.”

Customers and developers see languages as lagging behind hardware and MPE advances. “The benefit of the 3000 is that it is a coherent environment,” said Nick Demos, a founder of 3000 editing tool supplier Performance Software Group. “A coherent environment includes compilers, an it’s incumbent upon HP to come up with a strategy that integrates and advances all these compilers.”