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[gpc] Re: GCC integration?


Waldek Hebisch dixit:

(cross-posted to gcc list, please reply to
 the gpc list)

>   appling the patch form `diffs' subdirectory. Going beyond that
>   would be mostly wasted effort, because gcc-3.4.x and coming 4.x
>   are different enough (so one would have to re-do the work for

Exactly this is the cause for the following
request of mine:

Since gcc 4.0 will be out of the door not in less
than two months from now, and given that gcc 4.1,
which ought to solve at least the basic problems
with tree-ssa etc. is not even in sight yet, I
propose that there will be a gcc-3.5 release with
support for Pascal, based upon gcc-3.4, current
gpc and Waldek's patches.

This would be great since we already had the new
directory layout (what I would greatly like to
see for Ada and Pascal is that their RTS moves
from gcc/p/ to libgpc/ ASAP), and the gcc-3.4/3.5
specific diffs integrated into the core, while the
backend patches for gcc 3.3 and older are still
available (I don't think Frank is going to throw
them away after the integration), and so, if you
do _not_ remove the ifdefs from gcc/p/*, you could
do another standalone GPC release based upon the
code in the gcc-3.5 development tree.

While it might also be worthwhile to integrate
Hiroaki Etoh's ProPolice SSP, and probably other
fixes (Apple stuff?), this would mean gcc 3.5
must be an "official" release. If the SC really
is reluctant to do so, it might be feasible to
do a "gpc+gcc 3.5" version, developed as a branch
in the gcc cvs, but not endorsed by the SC.
(Of course, if there'd be interest, one could add
ProPolice to that branch as well, unless you really
want it to be only for your gpc-specific work. If
there is interest, I myself could try to get cvs ci
access to gcc.gnu.org - I've already signed the
relevant forms, and etoh has, too - and integrate
the current propolice; I'm already doing this for
the gcc contained in my OS at the moment).

For others, developers, especially OS vendors, this
would also be great, because history has shown that
gcc 3.x branches tend to end after 3.x.3 or 3.x.4,
and for the aforementioned reasons 4.0/4.1 will not
gain wide acceptance outside of Gentoo (j/k) soon;
if one were to incorporate generic 3.x bugfixes and
maybe backport 4.x bugfixes into a 3.5 series, this
could not only get much adoption, but maybe support
from the large (e.g.) GNU/Linux vendors (Novell?).

This support would lead to a faster distribution of
gpc to "the masses" than releasing a standalone gpc
version now and then integrating it into 4.1/4.2
ever could. Besides, support for 3.4 is "almost" done
for the more common platforms; I doubt gpc will make
it into mainline before it runs on almost all platforms,
and having it in gcc cvs will surely help to both get
more eyes on the code (Nathanael said something like
this IIRC) and get these who do changes to the backend
more aware of gpc.

Just my 0.02 EUR,
//mirabile


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