This is the mail archive of the
gcc@gcc.gnu.org
mailing list for the GCC project.
Re: Pascal front-end integration
Joseph S. Myers wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, Waldek Hebisch wrote:
>
> > 1) With current GPC I can work out a new feature and test it using old
> > backend. Such feature relatively quickly can go out in a development
> > snapshot which is usable by ordinary users (the development snapshot
> > uses old, tested backend which shields users form most bugs outside
> > the front end). At the same time I can work on adapting GPC to newer
> > backend. All that when _I_ have time.
> >
> > Staged development introduces deadlines and delays, which are very
> > disruptive for me (it seems that other peope can handle schedules
> > much better than I can).
And these people are definitely not me, BTW. ;-)
> > 3) AFAIU dropping support for multiple backends is considered as a
> > pre-condition to inclusion of GPC into GCC. GPC release wold be
> > part of GCC release. People trying GPC snapshots would automatically
> > get backend snapshot. I am affraid that for Pascal that means
> > 6-8 months extra delay between including a feature in GPC and first
> > bug reports (and consequently more effort for bug fixing).
>
> The way to avoid this is for front ends to have internal datastructures
> decoupled from those of the rest of GCC and to have a small piece of code
> that does the conversion (like the Ada front end's gigi), then just
> maintain multiple versions of that small piece of code. This seems to
> work well for Ada.
Well, I haven't looked closely at the Ada code. Perhaps it's an
option for gpc, but I'd imagine it would be a significant initial
effort at least (converting the current code which works rather
closely with backend data structures).
If you or Jim want to take this effort, then let's discuss the
details first before you start something on your own. We (Waldek and
I) currently have some open issues where we consider to (or did
already) add private tree codes, and I suppose they should be
handled by this intermediate layer then as well.
But other than that, I can't really tell whether or not that's a
good way to go for gpc ...
Frank
--
Frank Heckenbach, frank@g-n-u.de
http://fjf.gnu.de/
GnuPG and PGP keys: http://fjf.gnu.de/plan (7977168E)