Re: [gaius@glam.ac.uk: GNU Modula-2 progress]

[Manfred Hollstein <mhollstein@cygnus.com>]

Hi Gaius,

On Thu, 26 August 1999, 14:31, gaius@glam.ac.uk wrote:

 > 
 > 
 > > rms wanted us to get in touch with you so we can coordinate getting
 > > the work you've been doing into the compiler.
 > 
 > Many thanks for the hints on how to integrate Modula-2 changes into
 > gcc - especially the URL and cvs info.

Cool, that's great news indeed!

I enjoyed learning Modula-2 several years ago (pooh, is it really that
long ago? ...), but I'm still a big fan  of Modula-2, and - believe it
or not -   during the last  few weeks  I  thought about writing an  M2
frontend to be integrated into gcc myself... ;-)

If you need any help, don't hesitate and ask for it.

l8er,
manfred
 > 
 > Here is part of the message I've just sent to rms about who wrote m2f:
 > 
 > 
 > Thanks for the reply, for my sins I wrote all the compiler modules
 > and all the library modules expect two (see below). It is a
 > fully functioning Modula-2 compiler which currently runs on Linux and
 > generates 80[3456]86 code, 8086 and is32 (a research abstract machine
 > processor). It generated GDB .stabs info and worked well with the
 > emacs/gdb combination. On the plus side it allows declarations in any
 > order - as per Wirth's definition and it also allows abstract types to
 > be any type, not just a pointer type. It conforms to Programming in
 > Modula-2 edition 2 by N. Wirth (albeit the library modules are different).
 > 
 > On the downside the code generator of m2f could be improved.
 > Thus one of the many attractions of linking the front end of
 > m2f up to the gcc back end :-).
 > 
 > There are two library modules which I didn't write and I shall rewrite
 > these modules (or remove them) Sort.mod (quicksort and bubble sort -
 > actually the compiler doesn't need these so it might be easier to rm it).
 > Also FIO.mod the file system input output module, which to keep things
 > clean I'll take it out and write an alterative module blind following the
 > guidelines in the emacs info system (using dynamic memory and different
 > algorithms/approaches). Currently the all the library modules are not held
 > by GPL but after this work they could be under GPL if you wish? I'm very
 > keen for as much to be under GPL as possible.
 > 
 > Any advice?
 > 
 > Is this the right thing to do? I've signed a GNU registration form
 > 3 years ago when I submitted some changes to gdb and binutils. Do
 > I need to sign another for m2f/gcc ?
 > 
 > cheers Gaius
 > 
 > URL:  http://floppsie.comp.glam.ac.uk    click on Modula-2 and m2f under
 > "Scratching an itch"