-fzero-initialized-in-bss again

[Gabriel Dos Reis]

kenner@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner) writes:

|     > What we are discussing is what object file section each variable
|     > should go into.  And what I'm saying is that this shouldn't depend on
|     > whether a variable was written in C or Ada: it should only be a function
|     > of language-independent attributes.
| 
|     This statement really doesn't make sense to me.  It's like saying that
|     what section a variable goes into should be the same between C and
|     C++; if it was true, then we should be able to delete thousands of
|     lines from the C++ frontend that are concerned with section and
|     linkage selection.
| 
| Not really.  What I was trying to say is that the goal is to make Ada and C
| as compatible as possible in terms of data layout.

I don't dispute that.  However, there out to be a distinction between
layout and *linkage*.  The C language has a very simply-minded model
of linkage. What people have been saying is that, it is the other
front-ends' responsability to make sure that their mapping to the C
linkage model is done right.  It does not make much sense to say that
layout compatibility ought to imply linkage compatibility.  The C++
front-end, for example, tries to be as layout compatible as possible
with C where it makes sense, but it is very careful about the linkage
mapping. 

-- Gaby