On 01/22/2013 05:47 PM, Jonathan Wakely wrote: > On 22 January 2013 16:52, NightStrike wrote:
>> Perhaps it'd be worthwhile to consider making the compiler easier to >> understand, maybe by devoting a lot of effort into the internals >> documentation. There's a lot of knowledge wrapped up in people that >> could disappear with one bus factor. > > Of course it's worthwhile, but it's the usual story. Who's going to do > it? How do you force volunteers to work on simplifying existing code > and documentation? Is that higher priority than "finishing" something > like C++11? I've come to the conclusion that a real industrial-strength compiler like GCC with as many targets as it has is just going to be hard to understand, no matter what you do. There is a lot of code, and there is no quick way to be an effective GCC maintainer. I'm now working on the HotSpot VM, and it's much the same experience. Internals change, and there is a very great risk that detailed internals documentation will become obsolete by the time it's completed. For example, I used to think that it would be a good idea to document the tree form(s), but I now realize that the file tree.h is exactly what is required. Andrew.
