[gclist] Precise GC's performance

[fjh@cs.mu.OZ.AU]

Darius Blasband, you wrote:
> 
> The big issue for us is how manageable is the GNU intermediate format
> interface. I would be very interested in any information you can provide.

I haven't written a gcc front-end myself, but I have had a good look at
the gcc source code to see how difficult it would be.

It would not be easy going, but it would definitely be easier now (with
gcc 2.7.x) than it was earlier, because the variety of different
front-ends (Fortran, Ada, etc.) has ensured that the separation between
front-end and back-end is quite a bit cleaner now than it used to be.

For a good place to start, there's an example gcc front-end for a toy
language at http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh/gcc/example-front-end.shar.
For more information, see tree.h and tree.def in the gcc source code.

-- 
Fergus Henderson             	WWW: http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh
fjh@cs.mu.oz.au              	PGP: finger fjh@128.250.37.3
"No Bad Religion song can make your life complete" -- Bad Religion.