Re: handling changes to the front-end interface

[Nicola Pero <n dot pero at mi dot flashnet dot it>]

> It is the
> responsibility of the person making such a change to test it, but it is
> also the responsibility of language front-end developers/maintainers
> to ensure that the test suite contains a reasonable test suite for
> their language.  If the test suite for a particular language doesn't
> cover enough of the language, then yes, the front-end for that language
> will break.

Ok - while I think the author of the change could have run `grep
rest_of_decl_compilation objc/*' and made the trivial changes there to
match his changes, I agree with the fact that the objc test suite is
incomplete - I need to write a complete systematical objc test suite.


> > Or - at least - he should have warned people working
> > on other front ends (other than C/C++) that they needed to update their
> > front ends, and how.
> 
> This change was documented in the LANGUAGES file, which exists for precisely
> that purpose.

Thanks! - I didn't know about that file - I will monitor it - it would be
really useful if it were used.  As far as I see from the file, no change
has been registered there before this one (and after 1998).  In this
respect, I do appreciate the fact that the author of this change
registered his change there.  I hope other will follow him.


> I've been monitoring the gcc lists recently to look for changes that might
> affect the Mercury front-end.  But I probably won't have enough time and/or
> patience to do that indefinitely.  

Yes...


> If/when I stop, I sure hope the gcc developers continue to maintain 
> the LANGUAGES file (or some equivalent).

Yes - it seems this could be quite a helpful thing.