On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Eric Gallager <eg...@gwmail.gwu.edu> wrote: > On 10/26/16, Ian Lance Taylor <i...@google.com> wrote: >> On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 9:31 AM, Will Hawkins <wh...@virginia.edu> wrote: >>> >>> Thank you for your response! I don't think that there has to be >>> controversy to be interesting. Obviously that split/reunification was >>> important, but I think that there might even be some value in >>> documenting the minutia of the project's growth. In other words, what >>> was the process for incorporating each new version of the C++ >>> standard? Who and why did GCC start a frontend for X language? Things >>> like that. >> >> It is easier to answer specific questions. >> >> There have always been GCC developers that have tracked the evolution >> of C++. The first C++ standard was of course in 1998, at which point >> the language was over 10 years old, so there were a lot of C++ >> language changes before then. GCC has generally acquired new language >> features as they were being adopted into the standard, usually >> controlled by options like the current -std=c++1z. This of course >> means that the new features have shifted as the standard has shifted, >> but as far as I know that hasn't happened too often. >> >> GCC started as a C compiler. The C++ frontend was started by Michael >> Tiemann around 1987 or so. It started as a patch and was later >> incorporated into the mainline. >> >> The Objective C frontend was started at NeXT. They originally >> intended to keep it proprietary, but when they understood that the GPL >> made that impossible they contributed it back. I forget when the >> Objective C++ frontend came in. > > > The Objective C++ frontend was contribute by Apple. The earliest > proposal I can find for adding it was in 2001 for GCC 3.x: > https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2001-11/msg00609.html > However, it didn't actually make it in to the FSF version until 4.1: > https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2005-05/msg01781.html > https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2005-12/msg01812.html > Personally, I think one of the interesting stories of GCC history is > how Apple used to be really involved in GCC development until 2007, at > which point the GPL3 and iPhone came out, and Apple abandoned GCC for > llvm/clang. If you read through the mailing list archives on > gcc.gnu.org, you can find all sorts of emails from people with "at > apple dot com" email addresses in the early 2000s, until they just > sort of stopped later that decade. Even llvm/clang was originally just > another branch of gcc, and Chris Lattner was even going to contribute > it and keep it part of gcc, but then he never got around to getting > his copyright assignment paperwork filed, and then Apple turned it > into a separate project: > https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2005-11/msg00888.html > https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2006-03/msg00706.html > > >> >> Cygnus Support developed the Chill and, later, Java frontends. The >> Chill frontend was removed later, and in fact the Java frontend was >> removed just recently. >> >> As I recall Fortran was a hobbyist project that eventually made it in. >> There were two competing forks, I think. I don't remember too much >> about that off the top of my head. >> >> The Ada frontend was developed at AdaCore. >> >> The Go frontend was written by me, mostly because I like Go and I've >> been working on GCC for a long time. I work at Google, and Go was >> developed at Google, but there wouldn't be a GCC Go frontend if I >> hadn't decided to write one. >> >> There is a Modula frontend that is always close to getting in. I >> think there is a Pascal frontend out there too, somewhere. And a D >> frontend. >> >> Ian >>
I want to thank each individual for his/her reply, but I don't want to SPAM the list. So, I will do it in one email! Thanks! This is so much more information than I expected to get and it's just amazing. Thanks again! Will
