[M3devel] cm3 llvm backend?

[Hendrik Boom]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 06:31:47AM +0000, Jay K wrote:

> I know everyone here doesn't really like C/C++ (except me).
> And, more significantly, I know the system written in itself
> is a great test case, but I wonder if we shouldn't write a new
> "real" frontend in C or C++, and see if we can't merge that
> upstream with gcc and/or clang.

Replacing the entire front end with a new one, written from scratch, 
and not just a machine-translation or a hand-translation of the old 
one, would enable us to deal with the licincing issues about the M3 
compiler.  Then only the libraries will be stuck with the wrong 
licence.

OCaml might also be a good language in which to write a new compiler.

> 
> It also worth mentioning that I believe gcc's Ada front end
> is written in Ada -- you don't actually have to write
> the frontend in C/C++ to merge upstream.
> 
> But there might remain licensing concern.

-- hendrik