Re: Newbie

[Phil Edwards <pedwards at disaster dot jaj dot com>]

On Wed, Oct 25, 2000 at 03:32:49AM -0400, brent verner wrote:
> forewarning: I'm not really 'involved' in gcc development, in fact
>   i'm pretty much floundering on the fringe of it all, so hopefully
>   someone really involved will help clue us all in :)

As another, uh, flounderer, I'll make mention of some of the things that
have been a great help to me.


>   basic:
>     1) know the tools you're gonna use _well_:
>       a) gdb -- batch mode rocks!

And for the hairy problems, the Insight GUI is a boon.  For the really
hairy problems, ddd's graphing facility can be even better.  It's like a
whiteboard and marker, automatically updated.

>       b) C
>       c) auto(conf|make|header)

The recent book, "Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool," by their respective
maintainers, would be helpful here.  It's published by New Riders but I
don't have the ISBN handy.


>       d) lex/yacc

The comp.compilers moderator, John Levine, co-authored a most excellent
O'Reilly book on lex and yacc.  That plus the man pages were all I needed.


>     2) have _much_ time to devote.
>     3) know how compilers work (???)

There are a /lot/ of texts on this.  I think the GCC homepage's
"recommended readings" list many of them.


>     4) read this list. download the mbox formatted archives.
>     5) be a super-genius (note: i fail this requirement, so I hope
>        it is not really a requirement)

Let me know if you find a way to fulfill this one.  I, too, need it.


>     documentation:
>       teaching is one of the best ways to learn. after reading the
>       existing documentation, submit a patch adding documentation
>       where you _really_ wish it had been.

In a big way.  My current pet peeve is all the compiler options which
aren't documented.  Lack of good documentation of the internal structures
are the biggest impediment to new contributors -- although it's difficult
to help here, since you have to know it before you can document it, and
it's quite hard to know it without documentation...  If somebody could
keep an up-to-date description of 'tree' for example, I would name my
first-born child after him/her.  (Well, maybe not.)


-- 
pedwards at disaster dot jaj dot com  |  pme at sources dot redhat dot com
devphil at several other less interesting addresses in various dot domains
The gods do not protect fools.  Fools are protected by more capable fools.