Phase 1 of gcc-in-cxx now complete

[Posted June 30, 2009 by corbet]

From:		Ian Lance Taylor <iant-AT-google.com>
To:		gcc-AT-gcc.gnu.org
Subject:		Phase 1 of gcc-in-cxx now complete
Date:		Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:32:06 -0700
Message-ID:		<m3ocsc9hrt.fsf@google.com>
Archive‑link:		Article

I am pleased to report that if you configure gcc with
--enable-build-with-cxx, which causes the core compiler to be built
using a C++ compiler, a bootstrap on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu now
completes.

I would like to encourage people to try using --enable-build-with-cxx in
other configuration--other bootstraps, cross-compilers--to see how well
it works.  Please let me know if you run into problems that you don't
know how, or don't have time, to fix.

This completes the first phase of the gcc-in-cxx project, which I
started about one year ago at the 2008 GCC Summit.

At this point I personally will probably not work on this project for
some weeks, other than bug fixing.  Further steps on the overall project
of converting gcc to C++ are:

* Write a coding standards document for gcc in C++.

* Convert more code to be compiled as C++ when using
  --enable-build-with-cxx.  Currently the generator programs
  (genattrtab, etc.) and libcpp are still compiled as C.

* Develop some trial patches which require C++, e.g., convert VEC to
  std::vector.

* Test starting the bootstrap with earlier versions of the compiler to
  see which C++ compiler version is required, and document that.

* Petition the steering committee for formal approval to switch to C++.

I do not expect to convert the compiler to require C++ in the 4.5
timeframe.

I encourage anybody who is interested to experiment with these further
steps.

Ian

to post comments

what's the goal?

Posted Jul 2, 2009 15:45 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (2 responses)

For the forgetful of us, does anyone have a link to a story about why a move to c++ should be considered? Thanks.

what's the goal?

Posted Jul 2, 2009 16:33 UTC (Thu) by Nahor (subscriber, #51583) [Link] (1 responses)

PDF: http://airs.com/ian/cxx-slides.pdf
taken from the following LWN article: http://lwn.net/Articles/286539/

what's the goal?

Posted Jul 7, 2009 18:15 UTC (Tue) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

thanks.

I think he might be underestimating how non-trivial it will be to convince a heterogeneous team of developers to change language.

Phase 1 of gcc-in-cxx now complete

Posted Jul 6, 2009 11:03 UTC (Mon) by mlankhorst (subscriber, #52260) [Link] (1 responses)

They want to move to C++ constructs, but can gcc still be built by a compiler without C++
support?

Phase 1 of gcc-in-cxx now complete

Posted Jul 6, 2009 18:59 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

In this scenario, no.

(Presently, a C90-capable compiler is required.)