> Is there no abstract interface that would shield *any* > front end from "differences in representation of source locations > between successive generations of the core compiler"? Certainly we > have made major changes in the GNAT representation without any change > at all in clients (except to take advantage of new features).
I don't think so, we'll have to devise in gigi. > It seems to me that clients should know nothing whatever about the > representation of source locations. The only invariant required by > the GNAT front end is that source locations fit in 32-bits (since > this accomodates up to 4 gigabytes of source in any one compilation, > that sounds enough for ever!) The Ada compiler is a bit special because nearly all the diagnostics are issued by the front-end from its private internal representation. For the other compilers, especially the C family of compilers, there is no private internal representation since they essentially manipulate the tree IL directly. -- Eric Botcazou
