[M3devel] licensing (gcc patches)

[hendrik at topoi.pooq.com]

On Mon, Jul 05, 2010 at 12:49:18PM +0000, Jay K wrote:
> 
> Yes parse.c is a new file added to gcc and contains the bulk of our work on gcc.
> There are some other small files and small diffs, but parse.c is really it.
> 
> parse.c: the name seems wrong, but if you consider that from gcc's point of view,
> we are a front end, then it makes sense. As a front end to gcc, our "source language"
> is very odd, it is binary files encoding the sequence of function calls the "actual"
> frontend would have me to an "actual" backend.

I like that technique.  It's similar to the intermediate code the coq 
proof checker produces after it's proved a theorem -- a file 
coding the sequence of calls to the elementary proof rules that turned 
out to be actually needed to get to the conclusion.  It stores these 
files in a library, so it can read them in later and reprove the theorem 
quickly in case you need it again.  It beats cryptographic signatures 
for security.

I wonder if the FSF gang would look at parse.c differently if there were 
other compilers, GPLed ones, that use your back end.

-- hendrik