Daniel Berlin wrote: > Mark Mitchell wrote: >> Kenneth Zadeck wrote: >> >> So, I guess my inclination would be to just write out the type >> information now, and thereby avoid the dependency on fixing GIMPLE.
> Please don't take this the wrong way, but this approach is the reason > GIMPLE is not flat/tupelized, not type consistent *right now*, and why > this discussing is even occurring at all. I agree with the thrust of your email. If engineering excellence were our primary goal, and we had a master engineering plan for GCC, and we all committed to following the master plan, we'd clearly put something like type-consistent GIMPLE early on the plan because everyone agrees it is The Right Thing from an engineering point of view. However, (a) all of the antecedents in the previous sentence are false, and (b) we are resource-limited. So, GCC development tends to let the pressure build on some set of infrastructure until it has been painfully obvious for some amount of time that it has to change. (In my experience, the same thing happens in developing proprietary software; convincing product management to let you spend significant time fixing something that's not on the next release's feature list requires some good salesmanship.) Demonstrating proof-of-concept for functionality is important because it (a) builds community interest (as you mention by saying how new code tends to appear immediately after something works), and (b) convinces people with resources (including companies and individuals that make non-sponsored contributions to the toolchain) that a particular technology has good potential RoI. I think the ultimate question here is the usual: is this the *best* use of the engineering time we have available? And that value-judgment is ultimately made by the people funding LTO; I haven't yet had a chance to talk to our customer about this issue. But, my personal opinion is that I would rather see LTO working, and not try to solve orthogonal problems along the way. -- Mark Mitchell CodeSourcery [EMAIL PROTECTED] (650) 331-3385 x713
