Re: FSF GCC, #import and #pragma once

[Mike Stump <mrs at apple dot com>]

On Tuesday, July 22, 2003, at 02:54 AM, Nicola Pero wrote:
> > Has Zack succeeded in changing the language definition to not include
> > #import?
>
> Language definition ?  The first time I heard of such a thing. :-)

Odd.  I cannot account for that.

> It's a manual documenting part of your proprietary Cocoa
> development environment, and can't really be used as a vendor-neutral
> language definition.

There are many things described in there that are not part of the FSF 
code base.  Quite a lot of these are part of the runtime library or 
will be contributed.
Ignoring those issues for a moment, there is still quite a bit of 
content in there that describes the language as implemented by both the 
Apple gcc compiler and the FSF gcc compiler.  My claim is that this 
forms a basis for a language document.

Is it perfect, no, few things in life are.

> I suppose we need a GNU language definition for the GNU Objective-C
> language

It might be nice if gcc had complete docs for the Objective-C language.

> > I think #import removal has to be OKed by Stan and Zem before it is
> > done.
>
> I found the other reply, saying the GCC SC need to decide that, much 
> more
> balanced and acceptable, as the GCC SC is supposed to represent a 
> variety
> of interests, rather than just Apple's own interests.

No, the SC should abstain from language definition.  That isn't their 
role.  What they should do, is decide who is, and is to be Objective-C 
maintainer and that person (or persons) should decide what gcc will do. 
 We already have an Objective-C maintainer, they already decide what 
gcc should do.

I don't see that anything needs fixing.  I don't see that anything is 
being done wrong, or at odds with the community or users.  If you 
disagree, let us know.

> As far as I know, nobody is willing to maintain #import working across 
> all
> platforms / filesystems that GCC is working on.

?  So?  If people want gcc to work in some feature space (X,Y,Z), then 
people will have to test and submit patches to fix and keep it working 
in that space.  And if they don't, well, it will languish.  People can 
ensure a feature they don't like doesn't work by breaking it often, 
but, personally, I don't think that is proper.

> Apple is willing to maintain in working on Apple, but what about all 
> the
> other platforms / filesystems ?

I guess I don't understand what doesn't work.  If something doesn't, 
everyone is free to fix it, if they care, if no one cares, well, it 
must not matter.

> I'd like to state clearly that I'm not willing to do any work on 
> #import

Ok.  Everyone is free to not contribute anything they don't want to, 
wait, I said that wrong, everyone is free to not contribute everything 
they want to, wait, oh, never mind.  :-)