Handling constructive criticism

[Robert Fraser]

Hans W. Uhlig wrote:
> Perhaps this can best be accomplished with gdc. GDC from what I can 
> gather is dead 

It's not; it just progresses very slowly. You'll occasionally see a bug 
marked as closed, so it's going somewhere.

> but the backend used by GCC is superior to the dm backend 
> (not due to insufficient coding but simply due to significantly more 
> people giving loving care, attention and eyes over a long period of 
> time).

That's a gross generalization. the GCC backend generates better code for 
some things, the DigitalMars backend generates better code for others.

> I understand the dm chain will always be the formal one, but 
> perhaps integrating some of the polishing into gdc might be a good way 
> to complete a workable product.

DMD's frontend is used as the frontend of GDC and the backend is 
closed-source. So what are you thinking about integrating?

> I would volunteer for this but my 
> knowledge of compilers is rudimentary at best. Although I will be 
> looking over source code to see if I can understand how it works.

Cool!

I think Dil is where it's at. DMD's frontend is fast, but it's a total 
mess (I helped port it to Java, where it's even more of a mess), and Dil 
helps replace that with a sane and hopefully more easily debuggable 
frontend. Hopefully, Dil will be pluggable so that different backends 
(GCC, LLVM) will be easily added using just a visitor.