Using of parse tree externally

[Robert Dewar]

<<Interest in the GNU/Linux, in particular, is driving proprietary tools
vendors towards it.  These people want to be able to handle the Linux
kernel and the glibc headers, so they need to be able to handle GNU
extensions, and they want binary compatibility with GCC.  We have been
approached more than once by people who wanted to glue GCC front-ends
to their back-ends.  Mose of these people didn't understand the GPL;
when we made it clear to them that they would have to make their code
available, they backed off of this plan.  If, however, there was an
easy to handle external representation that didn't have that impact,
they might well make use of it.
>>

Yes, it's possible, but so far, the trend has been the opposite direction
(proprietary compilers getting open sourced so that they can marry GCC :-)