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Re: Target-specific Front-Ends? (Was: front end changes for altivec)
- From: Stan Shebs <shebs at apple dot com>
- To: Per Bothner <per at bothner dot com>
- Cc: Ziemowit Laski <zlaski at apple dot com>, Ira Ruben <ira at apple dot com>, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 18:08:49 -0800
- Subject: Re: Target-specific Front-Ends? (Was: front end changes for altivec)
- References: <2AC3AF3E-E376-11D5-AE62-0030658361CA@apple.com> <3C043F88.3030908@bothner.com>
Per Bothner wrote:
>
> Why would we want to put into our compiler a TARGET-SPECIFIC syntactic
> extension to handle the rather generic concept of a fixed-size vector?
> And why
> would we want to add a configure mechanism to do that?
>
> Let me answer for you: We don't.
Who's this "we" you're referring to? It can't be the body of GCC
contributors, because Zem is in that group, and it's not the
maintainers, because I haven't decided yet - I'm interested
in the arguments for and against. If the "we" refers to an SC
decision, you should say so explicitly.
Zem's proposal does challenge GCC orthodoxy, but in the past
you've been the one to question the rules imposed by other people.
Surely he deserves the opportunity to make his case, and as the
discussion today shows, there continues not to be a consensus on
whether it's even possible to have generic syntax for vectors,
so you can hardly fault him for trying to come up with creative
ideas to resolve this longstanding impasse.
Stan