Re: Progress on GCC plugins ?

[Robert Dewar <dewar at adacore dot com>]

Gabriel Dos Reis wrote:

> I have been able to build similar tool for at least two radically
> different C++ front ends -- one being proprietary, the other one 
> being GCC (the most painful to work with).  We call the representation
> `IPR' (for Internal Program Representation).  The interface is
> completely compiler neutral.  I haven't tested it myself on another
> important proprietary compiler but from feedback people we talked
> with, we should not worry.  Yes, that is not an ISO-approved thing,
> but just a data point something `vaguely equivalent to this in the
> general g++' context has been done.  We have not released IPR yet, but
> it be open source a fairly open license.  

It would be great if this could be the basis for an ASIS-similar
standard for C++, even if it is only a de factor semi-standard :-)
> | On the other hand, if your mission is to plug in an extra optimization
> | pass, ASIS won't help since it is strictly a read-only interface with
> | no provision for feeding back information to the compiler.
>
> IPR doesn't attempt to replace compiler internal data structures for
> writing optimizations.  Nor it is a plugin into GIMPLE or RTL -- as I
> said, it is designed to be compiler neutral.
>
> -- Gaby