Re: gcc front-/backend (Was: Re: Binary archive issues) On Fri, 8 Aug 1997, Steffen Opel wrote:

> > No. It was just one of the ideas during a "brainstorm", and like many
> > other ideas, it might die silently, particularly since an influential
> > individual whose name I won't tell and who can veto anybody else's
> > decissions, seems to be opposed to this idea.
> Could you please at least summarize the arguments of this well unknown
> person?

Sigh... I shouldn't have brought this subject to this list :-).

OK, the person was Richard M. Stallman, the president of FSF.

His arguments were along these lines:

1. GCC is not a school example, GCC is developed to be useful.

2. The proposal to split the backend from the frontends serves little
purpose in terms of improving quality, it mostly makes GCC look somewhat
"neater".

1 & 2 clash, and 1 is more important, therefore forget about 2 and focus
on releasing 2.8.0.

My comment:

PLEASE don't comment on this subject. The people who are making decissions
are NOT on this list, so discussing this subject serves no purpose apart
from occupying network resources.