-fdump-translation-unit considered harmful

[Joe Buck]

On Tue, Dec 21, 2004 at 01:44:56AM +0100, Stefan Strasser wrote:
> I really don't understand why this is so much of a political problem. I 
> understand the intentions, but isn't compiling proprietary code with gcc 
> the same? and that is explicitely allowed.

RMS would tell you that we only have a GNU C++ compiler because Mike
Tiemann's employer could not make it proprietary, and we only have a
GNU Objective-C compiler because Steve Jobs could not make it proprietary.
Had the equivalent of dump formats existed at the time, we'd only have
C.  (Of course, that's the inverse issue: proprietary front ends connecting
to GNU back ends).  By making just building onto GCC and GPLing the code
the path of least resistance, RMS hopes to motivate more people to produce
free software.