[Info-vax] C99 stuff (Re: The Road to V9.0)

[Bob Gezelter]

On Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 4:59:50 PM UTC-4, Craig A. Berry wrote:
> On 6/9/19 10:30 AM, John Reagan wrote:
> 
> > You won't need any of our changes to clang/clang++ if you are just
> > interested in porting over open source code. No open source code has
> > OpenVMS'isms buried in it. However, if you want RTL name prefixing,
> > etc., you'll need our edits. Since we will be providing a full
> > clang/clang++, getting it from VSI will be the easy way. Nobody here  > wanting to hack new stuff into clang?
> 
> I wouldn't think so, but people might want to do all the same things for
> other languages that VSI doesn't plan to provide.  Let's say for the
> sake of argument the powers that be command you to produce a
> VMS-friendly Objective C compiler.  Are you going to forget everything
> you did to bring up clang/clang++ and never look at the code you've
> already written?
> 
> Now turn it around (since you're unlikely to ever have that mandate) and
> say someone else wants to do it.  Wouldn't they benefit from being able
> to just take what you've done and adapt it?  Even things that you may be
> pushing back into LLVM (generating debug code that works for the OpenVMS
> debugger?), would be a lot easier to do from a working example.  Sure,
> people can probably figure it all out for themselves if they devote the
> resources to doing so, but wouldn't it be to everyone's advantage if
> they didn't have to?
> 
> > By the way, Rust is written in Rust, not C++. You have to bootstrap
> > from another platform. [I've spoken to Niko in person.]
> 
> Good to know.

Craig,

A cross-compiler for a bootstrap is a somewhat less challenging task than a production cross compiler. All it must do in this case is produce an executable code for bootstrapping. Efficiency (of compilation or execution) is not the issue. It must clear the bar of producing a working compiler. With access to LLVM, one would potentially not need a code generator, just something that produces an LLVM intermediate file.

Not to say the task is simple, but it is easier than in the old days.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com