RFC: Treat plugins as first class citizens

[Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>]

Hi Guys,

 I was thinking that it would be nice to make plugins a "first-class
 citizen" in the gcc world by having a proper directory structure and
 integration into the rest of gcc.  For example:

    gcc/plugins               <-- Everything plugin-y starts here
    gcc/plugins/Make-lang.in  <-- Makefile fragment.
    gcc/plugins/src           <-- Maybe move gcc/plugins.[c|h|def] here ?
    gcc/plugins/doc           <-- Actual documentation, wow!
    gcc/plugins/testsuite     <-- Tests for the plugins and their integration into gcc
    gcc/plugins/config        <-- Subdirectories of this directory contain each real plugin
    gcc/plugins/config/annobin  <-- For example, this is where my pet plugin would go

  Plus there could be an official plugins maintainer.  (I am willing to
  volunteer, so is Aldy Hernandez).  The documentation would be compiled
  along with the rest of gcc's documentation and the testsuite would be
  run as part of gcc's normal testing process.  Ideally I would also
  like to see plugin test failures be considered as blockers for new
  releases, but that is something for the future.

  So, what do you think ?  Should I create a patch and submit it for
  official review ?
  
Cheers
  Nick