On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 3:30 AM, Anonymous User <user4294967...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I'd like to help with the modularization of GCC. > > I've visited the getting started page at the official wiki but its contents > seem too old. I'm fairly new to GCC and and I'm bewildered by its huge code > base with lengthy and complicated makefiles and sophisticated internal > mechanisms. I don't know how to figure out the exact process GCC is built > and feel incompetent to make changes to existing code for fear of breaking > the underlying mechanisms. Also, it seems to me that the documentation on > GCC internals at the official wiki and various resources the wiki points to > are not enough to help a newcomer to make significant contribution, since > they are largely incomplete and outdated. > > However, I do have rudimentary knowledge about the structure of the code > base and have successfully built a frontend that merely emits a main > function that returns 0 for GCC 4.9.0. But I have no idea how I can make > further progress other than by aimlessly browsing through the source code. > > So how can I gain a systematic understanding of the internals of GCC in > order to get started with some serious work?
It's a good question. You're quite right that the documentation tends to be outdated and incomplete. That suggests one easy way to contribute: make the documentation better. Unfortunately, apart from that, it's hard to know how to answer your question. It's possible to answer a specific questions ("how does X work?"). It's hard to answer a general question ("how does everything work?"). Ian