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Re: A FrontEnd in C++?
- From: Mike Stump <mrs at apple dot com>
- To: Zack Weinberg <zack at codesourcery dot com>
- Cc: Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs dot mu dot oz dot au>, khalid aggag <khalidaggag at hotmail dot com>, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 12:20:24 -0700
- Subject: Re: A FrontEnd in C++?
On Monday, August 19, 2002, at 01:02 AM, Zack Weinberg wrote:
Based on the number of problems we have encountered with the Ada front
end compared to the others, I think that as a matter of project policy
writing front ends in any language other than C should be discouraged.
I disagree.
If writting frontends in C is to continue, it will continue because it
is the best language, not because someone mandated it.
Remember, gcc makes a nice reseach tool for implementing languages that
don't necessarily have to see the light of day. We don't gain by
telling people to go away.
I suspect if you polled the users, 99.9% of them or better never have
even experienced the slightest bit of a problem because Ada is written
in Ada. I certainly haven't. Also, bear in mind, Ada is still very
new in the compiler. Quite a few of the OS installations out there are
using compilers that predate the Ada front-end being a standard part of
the main gcc package. I suspect that given the normal OS update cycle,
that those that want Ada will merely have to run it, or click on the
right button during an OS install.
Certainly g++ had been a pain in the past. Now-a-days, one just types
g++ file.cc, and presto, C++ compiler.
If you want to say that writing functions in the mid-end should be
banned from using Ada, well, ok, I won't argue. :-)