DMD back end dev-kit

[John Reimer]

Hello Christopher,

> Robert Fraser wrote:
> 
>> It appears I have been officially "pwned" here. You & Bill are right;
>> GDC/LLVMDC isn't sufficient.
>> 
> Or we could politely ask Walter to switch to llvm or gcc for the
> backend for dmd. Hey, he actually changed opEquals to bool...
> 


Similar has been suggested on several occasions.  If you take a peek at previous 
postings in this group on the topic you will see his answer which invariably 
is "no" with a short explanation about "tainting" (or something similar). 
 He doesn't want to look at any other compiler code (opensource or otherwise). 
 It's a self-imposed rule to simplify his defense in any potential legal 
disputes, as I understand it, since he appears to still be in the compiler 
business.

This is completely understandable, but I think it hampers D's progress to 
some degree.  I'm not so sure we can ever get the backend by slapping down 
some money, but I'd agree that it would be great if something were done... 
moving to an opensource backend of one sort or another would be extremely 
good for D.

Whether or not our request is successful, the statement made here (about 
the donation) at least expresses how important it is to this community to 
see an active opensource backend as part of the reference compiler.  But 
we probably shouldn't get our hopes up too much: the issue hasn't budged 
one iota for quite a long time.  Yet, you never know. :)

-JJR