Re: [jhc] what to work on next?

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 11:17:29AM -0700, Taral wrote:

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 7:15 AM, John Meacham wrote:

...

I'll look into it, an issue is that I am looking for a GC I can use with the gcc backend. Other backends (such as cmm or jvm) come with their own garbage collectors, and although a native code generator would be neat, I wouldn't want to rely on one. In fact, rather than write a native code generator, I would likely want to write a standalone c-- compiler that I can bundle with jhc. In the end, grin is close enough to c-- that I don't think I lose anything in the translation.

Doesn't LLVM have a GC?

Yes, I believe so. I have looked into LLVM a couple times and decided not to use it. (at least for now). The type system doesn't quite mesh with jhc's and it's primitives don't match up enough for it to be an issue. I think as far as back ends go, a C-- one will be a much better path to a processor-neutral assembly language than LLVM. I may change my mind at some point, and certainly if someone who knows LLVM more wants to look into it then I'd be interested. But for now it is not on my radar. John -- John Meacham - ⑆repetae.net⑆john⑈ - http://notanumber.net/