> One imagines that one would construct a virtual machine architecture > framework
gcc already has one. It's called RTL. > and then write a back-end that would generate "machine code" for > that virtual machine, which would be a subset of ANSI C. Hey-presto, you > then have a butt-ugly anything-to-ANSI-C translator, that (whoops) loses > any > back-end-specific > optimizations. Treating C like an overgrown assembly language is certainly possible. Whether there's any benefit in doing that compared to writing a proper backend for whatever cpu you're interested in, or emulating a common/simple cpu, is a completely different question. Maintaining a gcc backend of any type is a significant undertaking. Maintaining a backend for an abnormal target (eg. C source) that's unlikely to ever be accepted into mainstream sourced is even more so. Paul
