GDC has just landed v2.098.0-beta.1 into GCC

[Iain Buclaw]

Hi,

The latest version of the D language has [now 
landed](https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=commit;h=5fee5ec362f7a243f459e6378fd49dfc89dc9fb5) in GCC.

As the D front-end for GDC is now itself written in D, in order 
to build GDC, you will need a working GDC compiler (GCC version 
9.1 or later).

Of the tested ports that work for bootstrapping the new 
front-end, x86_64-linux-gnu is the most battle tested.  Others 
that have been checked and verified to work include:
- mips-linux-gnu
- powerpc64le-linux-gnu
- sparcv9-sun-solaris
- x86_64-portbld-freebsd12
- amd64-openbsd6.9
- x86_64-netbsd
- x86_64-apple-darwin20.

**Why specifically v2.098.0-beta.1?**  No real reason, other than 
it was just the last time that I had synchronized my [development 
branch](https://github.com/D-Programming-GDC/gcc/tree/ibuclaw/gdc) with upstream dmd.

You can expect this to be bumped again to the latest commit made 
to [dmd master](https://github.com/dlang/dmd/commits/master) in 
the coming week, and for GDC to closely follow DMD development 
until around end of March when we'll switch over to whatever will 
be the upcoming DMD version just before the GCC-12 release freeze.

---
```
$ git show --oneline --stat
  5fee5ec362f d: Import dmd b8384668f, druntime e6caaab9, phobos 
5ab9ad256 (v2.098.0-beta.1)
  ...
  2803 files changed, 338878 insertions(+), 193928 deletions(-)
```
---

**What's left in the pipeline?**  For the next six months until 
May, its just the usual, too many things to do, too little time 
to do them.  I haven't forgotten about other improvements that I 
started looking into at the beginning of this development cycle:
- Hosting release binaries on the gdc project site (or github, or 
both)
- Updating the compilers on the explorer site to version 11
- Add more targets to the gdc build infrastructure.

If you think you could contribute in any way, please don't 
hesitate to jump on the 
[#gdc](https://dlang.slack.com/archives/C6LTP6MV1) channel on the 
Dlang Slack or [#d.gdc](irc://irc.libera.chat/d.gdc) on 
Libera.Chat IRC and ask about it.

See you around at the next release or update.

Regards,
Iain.

##### If you are interested in helping support ongoing 
development or infrastructure costs for CI and platform testing, 
you can do so by making a donation to the [D Language 
Foundation](https://dlang.org/foundation/donate.html), 
approximations of costs into USD are up on my [Github Sponsor 
page](https://github.com/sponsors/ibuclaw/).