GCC Needs a backend cleanup and complete rewrite

[Doug Gregor]

On Thursday 22 February 2001 09:00, Jeff Sturm wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Feb 2001, Doug Gregor wrote:
> > If GCC had a C backend the implementation language wouldn't matter so
> > much. Then each front-end could be implemented in the most suitable
> > language. This would also be helpful for front-ends written in C++,
> > because "Standard C++" is sadly nonexistant - instead GNU C++ could be
> > used and GCC developers would not have to worry so much about the
> > efficiencies or strictness of the native C++ compiler.
>
> The same could be done with any IL.  It wouldn't have to be C, provided at
> least the backend can be bootstrapped with a native compiler.

My thought was that the FSF requires K&R C, so a C backend wouldn't be so 
much of a stretch. Any IL would work, sure, but C is convenient in that it is 
at least somewhat portable on its own. A C backend does, of course, open up 
lots of problems - vendors using GCC as a frontend and then using their own C 
backends and the like, so perhaps MRTL (whenever it comes into existence) can 
be designed with this sort of platform-independence in mind.

	Doug Gregor
	gregod@cs.rpi.edu