Re: [RFC] Replace Java with Go in default languages

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

On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 2:21 PM, Jeff Law <law@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> So instead of proposing that we just remove Java from the default languags,
> I propose that we replace Java with Go.

I'm certainly in favor of removing Java from the set of default
languages.

I'm less sure about adding Go.

Right now Go does not build on a range of targets, notably including
Windows, MacOS, AIX, and most embedded systems.  We would have to
disable it by default on targets that are not supported, which is
straightforward (we already have rules to disable java on targets it
does not support).  But to the extent that there are options like
-fnon-call-exceptions that are tested primarily by Java and Go, we
would get less coverage of those options, since we would not test them
on systems that Java supports but Go does not.

More seriously, the Go sources live in a separate repository, and are
copied to the GCC repo.  In practice this means that when Go breaks,
it can't be fixed until I am online to fix it.  I don't think it would
be good for GCC for a bootstrap break to depend on me.  Of course we
could change the rules somewhat, and let people commit changes to the
Go parts of the GCC repo which I would then have to copy out.  But
it's something to think about.

Ian