> Since I started this whole thread off in the GPC list...
> What I don't fully understand is (and anybody correct me if I'm
> wrong):
>
> 1. From what I can tell, it looks like that GPC is a part of the GNU
> project. <http://gnu-pascal.de/gpc/h-gnu.html>
> 2. So is GCC (obvious).
> 3. At one point, there was an item under the "GNU Help Wanted" list on
> Savannah: <http://savannah.gnu.org/people/?group=tasklist>, that
> asked for new languages for GCC. Unfortunately, I don't see this
> item there now.
>
> So why isn't GPC integrated? If the FSF has the copyright for the
> Pascal front-end, why can't anybody just take the available patches
> and start moving them over and getting them worked up?
> Eric
True, anyone could do this. However it has to be someone or a group
with a confluence of the following:
1. Desire
2. Time
3. Technical Expertise
4. Willingness to follow GCC development procedures
(Money could perhaps provide for #1 and #2, but the person or company
hired must have #3 and most importantly #4.)
In late 2000 over the course of a couple of months, I exchanged email
with Peter Gerwinski on behalf of the SC, asking him to help get GPC
integrated into mainline GCC CVS. This would have been in time for
3.0. Sadly it wasn't done, think of where we'd be.
All of the front-ends we've fully integrated into GCC mainline have
profited enormously, going back to g++ and g77. Imagine having had
GPC in the entire 3.x series! The leverage you get from opening up
the development is huge. And keeping the language working in the
latest release then becomes the shared responsibility of hundreds of
developers who must not break things.
Look to the future, get GPC in GCC mainline. Or we'll be having this
discussion again for GCC 5.0 and you (people who care about GPC) will
have wasted another several years.
--Kaveh
--
Kaveh R. Ghazi ghazi@caip.rutgers.edu