For practical purposes, yes. (Fyi: Macro 11 was an assembler/compiler for the DEC PDP-11 family of processors. At Atex I was a machine language programmer.)
The assembly code could be recompiled (more or less directly) and run on Windows. Remember, that the modern Intel and AMD ‘Pentiums’ still have that level of 8/16 bit machine code in them and that fundamentally everything a computers must
be machine code. Despite all of the high-level languages in popular use today, they end up in machine language.
Being that it is in an Intel assembler, I am not completely certain how cross-platform compatible it would be if the target was using a different machine instruction set, but some of the new conversion functionality may have a way to do
that.
Working in C would certainly be easier. At base, all forms of the C language family are alike. The primary reason for having C in the first place was for platform portability. The higher versions simply have more features; Compiler compilers…
The scope of project we wish to embark on may have a lot of bearing with whether we want to start with Assembler or a C language. – Either way, it
would be nice to know if the C code was available and what it would cost, etc. C would certainly be a big step up. (There are several reasons, but are best not to get into this until later.)
As mentioned above, the scope of the project is very important. The pros and cons of positioning a new XyWrite/Signature for Windows 10 and what functionality it needs should be determined well before and programming is started.
Now, to be completely contradictory, a few program code conversion experiments may be useful beforehand, too.
One of the many powerful assets of Atex/XyWrite was that it was capable of being
programmed. A new implementation should have hooks for running/using scripts written in modern program and scripting languages.
Conjectures can be infinite and still gets nothing done.
Perhaps it would be a good idea for the various participants to throw out a few ideas of what they would like to see in a new embodiment of XyWrite. We could discuss, see the potentials and perhaps come up with something that would make
it useful for all of its traditional uses and find some that would make it even more relevant for today.
The distribution method and form are important, too. Depending on the source we use, and the cost, we could consider making this available as a modestly priced utility, or ‘app,’ making it available on line or even as a public domain project
that could become self-perpetuating.
Ideas. We need ideas.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10