Why keep the backend closed source?

[David Medlock]

John Demme wrote:

> akcom wrote:
> 
> 
>>Just simply out of curiosity, why keep the back-end for dmd closed
>>source?  It would make life dev'ing on PowerPC linux so much nicer if I
>>could just compile dmd myself instead of having to use an outdated
>>version of gdc (no offense to the great job being done with gdc, it's
>>just a bit dated at this point.
>>
>>-Alex
> 
> 
> 
> As JJR said, this won't help you, since the backend doesn't do PPC code.
> 
> Walter keeps it closed since he also uses it for dmc and dmc++.  His backend
> contains some very powerful tools, such as the optimizer, which he has been
> developing for a very long time.  I don't expect him (or ask of him) to
> open it up.  It's great that the front-end is open, though, so we have GDC.
> 
> It would be nice, however, if a compiled version of the backend could be
> supplied in a statis library so that one can compile the front-end and link
> it with the backend.  This way, one can experiment with the front end.  I
> don't know how much more this would reveal of the back-end, however.
> 
> 
> ~John Demme

Perhaps we could port it to : http://llvm.org/

-DavidM