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Re: Separate dir for the C frontend


On Sun, 12 Sep 2004, Gioele Barabucci wrote:

> Now that the SC has decided to switch from 3.5 to 4.0, I think the time
> has come to put the C frontend in its own directory and leave toplevel
> gcc/ for shared routines.  I know this move is not simple, but it has to
> be done sooner or later, and this major number change is the last
> occasion before 5.0 (that will probably come in three or more years).

Such a change has zero user visibility.  Accordingly, version number 
changes are completely irrelevant to it.

> And please don't postpone this move because of mainline being on stage 3:
> the change on version numbering has been announced after the mainline
> freeze...

This change was not proposed before the move to Stage 3, has zero user 
visibility or benefit, and does not fix any bugs; it would be solely for 
developer convenience; furthermore, it has nonzero risk of causing build 
system bugs.  Accordingly, it is not justified in Stage 3.

While I do have an idea for the proper directory structure, the change is 
not appropriate until Stage 1.

(My idea is c-family/ for files shared by all C family languages, with 
c-common.c split into more meaningfully named files, c/ for files used by 
C and in most cases by ObjC.  This structure is intended not to prejudice 
any possible future merge of any of the front ends; with merged front ends 
code in one directory could more freely call functions in other 
directories, conditional on the language or on datastructures only some 
languages create, and the amount of code in the different directories 
might vary, but the concept of code specific to a particular subset of 
languages, with conditionals to choose between variations, would still 
apply in such a case.)

-- 
Joseph S. Myers               http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~jsm28/gcc/
  http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~jsm28/gcc/#c90status - status of C90 for GCC 4.0
    jsm@polyomino.org.uk (personal mail)
    jsm28@gcc.gnu.org (Bugzilla assignments and CCs)


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