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Re: Using of parse tree externally
- To: espie at quatramaran dot ens dot fr, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Subject: Re: Using of parse tree externally
- From: dewar at gnat dot com (Robert Dewar)
- Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 08:27:00 -0400 (EDT)
Note incidentally that I would guess that the subject of this thread
is wrong, since the parse tree is of little interest, I assume that
what we are really talking about is the AST (abstract syntax tree).
It is interesting to note that GNAT *does* have the capability of
writing out its AST, and this tree is used to feed the ASIS implementation,
which provides an API that allows tools to access semantic information
for a compiled program (suitable for static analysis tools etc).
Theoretically, it might be possible to use this to drive a proprietary
back end. Theoretically, such a back end might not violate the GPL. In
practice building a complete compiler like this is hard anyway, and so
far it simply has not been an issue.
Robert Dewar