Re: C as target platform?

[Erik Schnetter <schnetter at uni-tuebingen dot de>]

On Fri, 23 Aug 2002 08:47:26 -0400, Daniel Jacobowitz <drow at mvista 
dot com> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 23, 2002 at 09:03:05AM +0200, Helmut Zeisel wrote:
> > Could C (or even KR-C) as a supported target platform solve
> > many of the problems with respect to a front-end
> > written in C++ or any other language?
> > 
> > In that case, one would have not only a Fortran to C
> > (similar to the existing F2C), but also an ADA2C, C++2C etc.
> > 
> > For bootstrapping (and maybe for the distribution) of GCC,
> > one could use the C-"compiled" version of GCC,
> > although the real source is written in some other language.
>
> Code to compile to C has been repeatedly declined, at RMS's request. 
> It makes using GCC as a frontend for a proprietary compiler too
> attractive.

An alternative would be an assembler-to-C converter.  Pick an easy 
assembler language supported by gcc (e.g. Sparc or MMIX), and write a 
standalone application that converts it to C.  If you read object code, 
then parsing is not a problem.  The produced C code need not be 
optimal, and a "reasonable" C compiler will produce "reasonable" 
programmes from it.

-erik

-- 
Erik Schnetter <schnetter@uni-tuebingen.de>
Web: http://www.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/~schnette/

My email is as private as my paper mail.  I therefore support encrypting
and signing email messages.  Tell me if I can encrypt messages to you.
(For more information, go e.g. to http://www.pgpi.org.)