At 11:25 AM 8/19/2003, Michael Anderson wrote:
>but one of the coolest attributes of M.P.E.; Forwards AND Backward
>compatibility.

HP only strived to provide forward compatibility.  There actually were/are
a number
of things that aren't backward compatible.  Backward compatibility is a
'...it depends..'
situation.  For example, the process stack markers changed at one point,
creating
potential problems for those that had developed programs to look in the
stack to obtain PARM values (which didn't require PM code) before there was
an intrinsic to obtain
this information.  Also, a number of tables or non-public routines changed
over the
years which affected 3rd party tools.  Most 3rd party tools did OS version
checks
to determine how to handle the differences.

So there's been a whole host of things that have evolved and to HP's credit,
forward compatibility has been quite seamless over the years.  Indeed, code
I wrote almost 30 years ago will still compile and run today without any
changes.
Certainly a testament to HP and their efforts at providing a stable business
computing environment.

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