Re: Putting C++ code into gcc front end

[Alexandre Oliva <aoliva at redhat dot com>]

On Mar  5, 2003, Zack Weinberg <zack at codesourcery dot com> wrote:

> My concern is entirely about *where* C++ can safely be used,
> and my opinion at the present time is "only in front ends other than
> C/C++/Ada."

I believe we should also let C++ into optional optimization passes.
The key here is `optional'.  As long as there's a way to build a
feature-limited C++ front-end starting with a random ISO C90 (or maybe
with the current GCC), that could then be used to build a
fully-optimizing compiler (at the expense of an additional stage),
we're ok.

> We can *not* easily ask everyone who currently
> builds GCC to install a C++ compiler for bootstrap purposes.

This is really not entirely different from Ada, except that, in my
proposal, it would be better than Ada.  Without GNAT, you just can't
build GNAT at all.  If we start using C++ in front-ends, even in
machine-independent code, as long as it's an optional part of the
build, we can get to a fully functional C/C++/etc compiler starting
out with a C-only compiler.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva   Enjoy Guarana', see http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Red Hat GCC Developer                 aoliva at {redhat dot com, gcc.gnu.org}
CS PhD student at IC-Unicamp        oliva at {lsd dot ic dot unicamp dot br, gnu.org}
Free Software Evangelist                Professional serial bug killer