Hello everybody, I'd like to participate in SoC, but first of all to get your feedback about project choice before submitting a proposal.
I've done some GCC work a few years ago: I was involved with the DJGPP port, also done several minor bugfixes outside that in the infrastructure. So I have some beforehand knowledge of GCC internals and programming tools involved, although my knowledge of RTL is at beginner's level (of other intermediate data structures virtually nonexistent). However at the university I have opted in for compiler courses, wrote my undergrad thesis about loop optimizations, so I have quite good knowledge of common compiler principles for a student. Having that in mind, also because I actually like doing infrastructural projects, cleaning up, speeding up things instead of implementing new features, I think I have found a suitable area for my project: garbage collection. I was looking for a compiler speed-up project yet avoid sinking into tree/RTL internals, as I doubt I would learn them effectively in time. I haven't worked out the precise details yet, but my proposed project would be along the following lines: - Investigate possibility of Boehm GC usage for compiler proper. Project page mentions inconclusive previous results here. I tried to google them in mailing list archives to no avail. Could somebody provide pointers to the previous investigation? - Assuming that Boehm GC turns out to be unusable for the compiler, finish the zone collector. Again, searching mailing list about what's unfinished was not very fruitful. - Assuming zone collector is done well before deadline, tune the collector by creating special zones for data with special lifetime. This list is by no means final. I hope to receive some feedback (at very least confirming that GC work would be helpful for the GCC project) and work out clear measureable outcome and details of the SoC project proposal. More about me: I was involved with the DJGPP project from my late high school years up to 2nd university year. Last year I've finished Computer Science undergrad studies at Vilnius University, Lithuania. At present I'm employed at and study in at Aalborg University, Denmark, studying for master's degree in Data Engineering. After DJGPP, my involvement in free software has moved to local issues: LaTeX localization for Lithuanian language, Lithuanian localization of Gaim. Additionaly I have about two year of industrial experience, having worked as a software engineer on several enterprise software products. Looking forward to your feedback and thanks in advance. (Please CC on replies) -- Laurynas
