Re: alternative for bootstrapping non-C frontends

[Rainer Orth <ro at TechFak dot Uni-Bielefeld dot DE>]

Lode Leroy <lode_leroy@hotmail.com> writes:

> If the frontends could be compiled to RTL, and some external 
> representation of that platform-independent representation of the 
> programs be written to files (eg. .rtl instead of .o files), then one 
> could get away with bootstrapping the C frontend, and the backend for 
> the platform, and then compile the .rtl files to .o files, and link 
> those to obtain a working frontend. This would remove the need to find 
> an existing ADA compiler for the target platform, or the need to go 
> through the process of building a cross-compiler.
> 
> This process would simplify bootstrapping for compilers that are not 
> written in C.

RTL wouldn't be an appropriate intermediate format, but there's been a
patch to provide a C backend (i.e. generate C instead of assembler code)
for GCC:

	http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2002-04/msg01016.html

This would allow for an initial bootstrap of frontends not written in C
from distributed C sources, similar to e.g. the GHC haskell compiler which
is written in Haskell itself.  The political status of this patch is still
undetermined, though (at least, I'm not aware of a definite outcome).

	Rainer