[M3devel] additional CVS repositories for additional gcc forks?

[Olaf Wagner]

Quoting Jay K <jay.krell at cornell.edu>:

>  > No. I would see a C backend as a variant (option) too, but probably not
>  > use it on platforms were I can compile without it.
>
> I would like to see a C backend at least replace the gcc backend.
>    We could maybe then slowly iterate on the integrated backend. Or LLVM.
> It would provide more obvious correctness, better debugging, better   
> code quality.

I don't really see that yet.

> Imagine -- basically all platforms would get stack walkers.
>   By generating C++ for most platforms, or using C exception   
> handling in NT/VMS/Tru64.
> Basically all platforms would just work.

I doubt that very much.

> Stock debuggers would work, gdb and others.
> Basically no more porting.
> Basically all optimizations could be enabled.
>   (Aside: I think the generated C would be sure to store
>   gc roots in volatile locals, but not otherwise use said volatiles.)

As I said: it has been tried before.

> And in more recent developments, it would enregister some records   
> passed by value.
> It would, in a sense, shrink the code base (cheating sort of).

And it would be an order of magnitude slower.

> I'm not holding my breath on any of this.
> But I'm going to start trying to do more and talk less about it.

I will let you convince me ;-)
I've got no problem with trying that. If it's really better, we will
use it. If not, we may want to use it for special situations (e.g. porting).

Olaf
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