On Thu, 2010-05-20 at 21:02 +0200, Steven Bosscher wrote: > Hello, > > The Obj-C++ front end is effectively unmaintained, and has virtually > no serious users. I propose to remove it from GCC.
Maybe we could consider, for the putative people wanting to maintain that frontend, to make it a plugin (or perhaps an external program producing Gimple-syntax). That brings a hopefully simpler, more general, and probably more interesting question: do we have the necessary hooks to enable such a front-end plugin? Or is the future gimple-syntax front-end becoming our recommended way to add extra front-ends to GCC? This is not at all (hopefully) a flame, but a a sincere question (by a "believer" of plugins). And I have no good perception of how difficult it is to "pluginify" or "externalize" -thru a gimple-syntax producer program- a front-end. If there is some way to add extra frontends in the future 4.6 thru plugins (or thru external programs producing a Gimple-syntax S-expression file), we have therefore an argument for any industrial wanting Obj-C++ in GCC. And a good machinery for external front-ends will sure help GCC, because it would ease the work of those working on non-mainstream frontends (like for the D language, or an hypothetical Oz, etc...). Cheers. -- Basile STARYNKEVITCH http://starynkevitch.net/Basile/ email: basile<at>starynkevitch<dot>net mobile: +33 6 8501 2359 8, rue de la Faiencerie, 92340 Bourg La Reine, France *** opinions {are only mines, sont seulement les miennes} ***
