Using of parse tree externally

[Robert Dewar]

<<But, I think you're making general statements without necessarily
knowing all the facts.  The statements I made came from direct
conversations with people interested in paying for various projects.

Let's just say that there is very substantial commercial interest in
proprietary compilers for GNU/Linux, and leave it at that.
>>

Well that's reasonable, I am just reporting on the two cases that I know
about of people actually putting together compilers from gcc front ends
and formerly proprietary backends. In both cases, the company involved
started by open sourcing the backend, of course it is true that in both
cases (SGI and TLD), we (ACT) were intimately involved in advising that
this was the appropriate way to go :-)

{I don't know if people are aware, but ACT has close contacts with SGI,
since SGI uses gcc/gnat as its primary Ada technology}

I have also been involved in two other cases where the possibility of
going in this direction was discussed, but in both cases, the companies
decided to go with proprietary front ends instead.

If there are cases of companies serious considering gcc front ends +
proprietary backends, that is definitely interesting to know about and
discuss (I would not just "leave it that" :-) In my opinion (with my
hat on as a qualified expert on technical issues of copyright law), the
company that first tries this will be stepping into a risky legal quagmire!