GCC 12.1 Released (D v2.100-rc.1)

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On 5/6/22 7:57 AM, Iain Buclaw wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am proud to announce another major GCC release, 12.1.
> 
> This year, the biggest change in the D front-end is the version bump 
> from v2.076.1 to 
> **[v2.100.0-rc.1](https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=commitdiff;h=b4acfef1342097ceaf10fa935831f8edd7069431)**.  
> For the full list of front-end changes, please read the [change log on 
> dlang.org](https://dlang.org/changelog/2.100.0.html). As and when DMD 
> releases new minor releases of v2.100.x, they will be backported into 
> the next minor release of GCC.
> 
> In order to build GDC, you will now require a working GDC compiler (GCC 
> version 9.1 or later) and D runtime library, as GDC is now written in D.
> 
> For the best chance of bootstrapping successfully, the latest version of 
> GCC 11.x will have all the backported fixes necessary to build GCC 12.  
> Alternatively, you can also use 
> [LDC2](https://gist.github.com/ibuclaw/e6733142a8644ffb53106cc9986372fa) 
> or 
> [DMD](https://gist.github.com/ibuclaw/73f91fd66b5d4a1a6ad29d739be627c1) 
> to build GDC with the use of a simple wrapper.
> 
> Note that configure does not test whether the GDC installation works and 
> has a sufficiently recent version. Though the implementation of the D 
> front-end does not make use of any GDC-specific extensions, or novel 
> features of the D language, if too old a GDC version is installed and 
> --enable-languages=d is used, the build will fail.  On some targets, 
> libphobos isn’t enabled by default, but compiles and works if 
> `--enable-libphobos` is used.  While the bootstrap process has been 
> tested on a vagary of platforms and architectures, your mileage may 
> ultimately vary.
> 
> If you encounter difficulties, while you may contact me directly, it is 
> better to visit https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla and file a problem report.
> 
> ---
> #### GCC 13 Development
> 
> Now the development cycle has started again, its time for the next round 
> of have ambitions for changes to land during the next release cycle.
> 
> 1. ImportC is gaining a preprocessor.  DMD will achieve this by calling 
> `fork()` to the system installed cpp program, I rather have other 
> ideas.  As the preprocessor for GCC is already linked into GDC (though 
> only used for internal location tracking by the middle-end optimizer), 
> it would make more sense to preprocess C sources in-memory using the 
> exposed cpplib interface.
> 
> 2. Add new compiler intrinsics for all functions in the `core.int128` 
> module.  Some preliminary testing has yielded results that show the 
> building blocks for 128-bit integers generate the same code as per 
> native types, however more stress testing is required, particularly on 
> big endian and strict alignment architectures before this will land in 
> mainline.
> 
> 3. Update the compilers on the [GDC compiler 
> explorer](https://explore.dgnu.org) site to version 12, and other 
> continued maintenance on the testing infrastructure, the costs of which 
> are now covered by the [kind 
> sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/ibuclaw) of GDC.  If you are 
> interested in helping support the on-going development of GDC, you can 
> do so by making a donation to the [D Language 
> Foundation](https://dlang.org/foundation/donate.html).
> 
> 4. As GDC is now in sync with current DMD development, this will 
> generally continue throughout the release cycle so that the next version 
> of GCC will also sport the latest release of the D language.
> 
> There are - as always - more things to do than I have available hours to 
> do them in, but if this has pricked your interest, or you feel you could 
> help 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.
> 
> Until the next major/minor release...
> 
> Regards,
> Iain.

Amazing, congrats! I'll have to try out gdc now that it might be able to 
build my stuff ;)

-Steve