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Re: Ada, treelang needs to be converted to --enable-mapped-location
- From: Mark Mitchell <mark at codesourcery dot com>
- To: Richard Kenner <kenner at vlsi1 dot ultra dot nyu dot edu>
- Cc: Joe dot Buck at synopsys dot com, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 18:42:35 -0700
- Subject: Re: Ada, treelang needs to be converted to --enable-mapped-location
- Organization: CodeSourcery, LLC
- References: <10410062313.AA18399@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu>
Richard Kenner wrote:
Linking Ada code to C is not hard, but has a cost, both in clarity and in
losing the ability to inline the code being called. It's worth doing that
linkage if (and only if!) there is some benefit in code sharing obtained from
that linkage.
The problem here is that we cannot make a decision for Ada independently
of the rest of GCC because the data structures (*_DECL tree nodes) in
question are shared among all GCC front ends. There is a clear benefit
to the other front ends from using this new approach: the compiler
itself goes faster with no loss in functionality.
I think that it's purely up to the Ada maintainers to decide how to
interface the Ada front end to the core GCC data structures in an
effective way. If that means translating from the current Ada
representation to the GCC representation at the last minute, when the
Ada front end translates all its other data structures, that's fine. I
don't understand how that can be impossible. It might be difficult for
the Ada maintainers, but that may be the price paid for being
independent of the core GCC data structures, and thereby providing the
ability to reuse the Ada front end with other back ends.
--
Mark Mitchell
CodeSourcery, LLC
(916) 791-8304
mark@codesourcery.com