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Re: C++ front end
- From: Richard Earnshaw <rearnsha at arm dot com>
- To: dewar at gnat dot com (Robert Dewar)
- Cc: ben at echotech dot ca, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org, Richard dot Earnshaw at arm dot com
- Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 14:40:50 +0100
- Subject: Re: C++ front end
- Organization: ARM Ltd.
- Reply-to: Richard dot Earnshaw at arm dot com
> It is perfectly possible to write a front end in C++ and I see no objections
> in doing so. Naturally you would want to ensure that the front end is
> compilable with the current version of g++ and stays that way :-)
>
> Note that writing a front end for C++ in C++ would also be possible, but
> would acquire some of the problems that GNAT has (since then you would have
> to find a working binary to bootstrap, just as you have to find a working
> GNAT binary to compile GNAT).
Writing a front end in C++ is certainly possible, but it would break the
current 3-stage bootstrap-compare process, since the stage-1 build only
creates a C compiler.
We would need to go to a four-stage build to support this (or not do a
compare on those front ends that required C++).
R
Building C++ during stage1 would introduce even more potential problems
than the recently debated switch to ISO C for the C compiler.