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Re: Using of parse tree externally
"George T. Talbot" wrote:
<snipped>
> None, most likely. I regret posting the above paragraph.
>
> At the same time, it was rather good example of how taking an
> ideologically absolute position can lead to an exactly opposite end, as
> illustrated by Linus' posts on the issue.
Absolutely, often the initial "obvious" answer leads us down the exact
wrong path of our intentions. Sometimes, the real answer is dealing with
potential circumstances that we wouldn't want to encourage is "so
what?". Indeed, I think this is the answer here. If someone has the time
and acumen to develop such a tool then the benefit to gcc and its users
would far outweigh any potential "loss" resulting from proprietary tools
attempting to profit (wrongly or rightly) from this effort. Since
creating the middle tool is the real hard part in the first place, don't
you think that any "successful" proprietary product based on its output
would be immediately surpassed by a free version? Seems to be the
history of open source I've witnessed to date.
> My apologies for getting my dumb self involved in such a charged issue,
> and many thanks for the enlightenment.
I don't think any apology is necessary (although asbestos underwear
might help). This issue does seem to be a land mine (wanna "discuss"
abortion now?) but I think an intellectually honest debate about it
results in a new understanding for everyone, even if a final agreement
is not reached. I believe that people are generally more open and see
the benefit of such a tool now than did previously which I believe is a
good thing. Now, if someone can just implement it....
regards & later,
Ben Scherrey