Re: Target deprecation, round three

[Nathanael Nerode <neroden at twcny dot rr dot com>]

David Edelsohn wrote:
> > > > > > Nathanael Nerode writes:
>
>
> Nathanael> In other words, you can make GCC target EBCDIC machines, you can have 
> Nathanael> EBCDIC machines as hosts running GCC, but you can't actually build GCC 
> Nathanael> on an EBCDIC machine.
>
> 	GCC for z/OS Unix System Services uses the system assembler and
> linker to build other applications and to build itself.  GNU Binutils does
> not exist for z/OS to provide a Free Software cross-environment.  The only
> cross-environment is the commercial Dignus product.
Hmm.  So with my proposal you'd have to use Dingus to build GCC, and 
could then use GCC natively on z/OS.  I take it you're saying that would 
not be a good situation.  OK, just getting things clear.

... Actually, I'm not clear on when character constants like '/' are 
converted to numbers.  Does the *compiler* do it or does the 
*assembler*?  If the compiler does it, one could theoretically 
cross-compile the relevant GCC files to assembly (on an ASCII machine), 
move everything over to the EBCDIC machine, and do the rest of the build 
there (being careful not to recompile those files).  This would require 
a bit of care... maybe too ugly to consider.

> 	Developers use gcc-i370 both natively on z/OS and with the Dignus
> System/ASM cross-assembler environment.
>
> David