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Re: Developing GCC
- From: Basile Starynkevitch <basile at starynkevitch dot net>
- To: "Rick C. Hodgin" <foxmuldrster at yahoo dot com>
- Cc: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:01:22 +0100
- Subject: Re: Developing GCC
- References: <1321450763.2178.1.camel@rick-toshiba>
On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 08:39:23AM -0500, Rick C. Hodgin wrote:
> What's the best way to learn about developing GCC? Not developing in
> GCC, but understanding and extending the compiler's design itself?
[It really depends of what you want to do inside GCC, but....]
Learn more about the pass machinery and the plugin machinery, and perhaps do
some plugins yourself.
IMHO (but I suppose many would disagree), developping a plugin (or a GCC
MELT extension - see http://gcc-melt.org/ which also have some slides which
could be useful to you) is best for code that you do not intend to push into
the compiler (in other words, making a plugin has probably more sense than
making your own private branch of GCC).
Once you mastered what plugins can give you, you have understood some of the
possibilities to develop GCC.
Happy hacking.
PS. And don't forget the legal aspects & prerequisites:
http://gcc.gnu.org/contribute.html - they will take a long time, so start
worrying about them right now!
--
Basile STARYNKEVITCH http://starynkevitch.net/Basile/
email: basile<at>starynkevitch<dot>net mobile: +33 6 8501 2359
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*** opinions {are only mines, sont seulement les miennes} ***