Re: Merging gdc (GNU D Compiler) into gcc

[Ian Lance Taylor <iant at google dot com>]

Iain Buclaw <ibuclaw@ubuntu.com> writes:

> I've have received news from Walter Bright that the license of the D
> frontend has been assigned to the FSF. As the current maintainer of
> GDC, I would like to get this moved forward, starting with getting the
> ball rolling. What would need to be done? And what are the processes
> required? (ie: passing the project through to technical review.)
>
> The current home of GDC is here: https://bitbucket.org/goshawk/gdc

Some preliminary comments.

Do you plan to move primary maintenance of the D frontend into gcc
proper, or do you plan the mirror the D frontend from an external
repository?

Are there any additional external dependencies required to build the D
frontend or the D runtime support?

I note that you have some patches to gcc proper; those patches need to
submitted individually for separate review.

The D frontend code does not appear to follow the gcc coding
conventions.  I'm not sure whether we should worry about that or not.

The D frontend code appears to be under the GPLv2.  The gcc project
would prefer GPLv3.

The D runtime appears to be in a subdirectory of gcc/d.  Ordinarily we
would prefer that it be in a separate toplevel directory, e.g.,
libdruntime.

There is a directory gcc/d/zlib, but gcc already has a top-level zlib
directory.

There is a list of most of the requirements for a new frontend at
http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gccint/Front-End.html .  Work through the
list and make sure that everything is handled.

I would like to see this happen, thanks for pushing forward.

Ian