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Re: Dumping RTL???
- From: kenner at vlsi1 dot ultra dot nyu dot edu (Richard Kenner)
- To: espie at quatramaran dot ens dot fr
- Cc: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Sun, 8 Dec 02 10:27:27 EST
- Subject: Re: Dumping RTL???
Front-end/back-ends: separate programs.
So? The fact that two programs are, from a technical point of view, separate
doesn't mean they are separate from a legal copyright point of view. They
made be and they may not be.
You can very well invoke closed source programs from within gcc.
In fact, if you install it on many systems, then your toolchain will
depend upon closed source assembler/linker.
What we're talking about is:
- release a gcc that's patched to dump intermediate representation, with
complete source.
- relase a binary program that's invoked by this gcc, without source.
How is this different ?
Because the interface between the assembler and compiler is a
documented interface *meant* to be used for that purpose. It is not a
copyrighted part of the assembler. Here, data the that's being dumped
is in a format that's part of the copyrighted work (GCC). Using that
data is a copyright violation.