About this: http://www.digitalmars.com/d/2.0/faq.html#dogfood
"""
The front end is in C++ in order to interface to the existing gcc and dmd back ends. It's also meant to be easily interfaced to other existing back ends, which are likely written in C++.
"""

Aren't most compiler back-ends written in C, or at least come with a C interface?  Given that basically nothing can call C++, not even C++ code from another compiler, why would you seal your back end up in C++?

It's pretty obvious that front end writers are eventually going to want to write their front ends in their target language, since everyone knows the "eat your own dogfood" mantra.   So C is really the only logical language choice for a general-purpose back-end interface.

Assuming I'm right and there is a C interface on any back end that matters, there shouldn't be any problem writing the front end in D, just extern(C) where necessary.

Right?

--bb

Bill Baxter wrote:

> Assuming I'm right and there is a C interface on any back end that matters, there shouldn't be any problem writing the front end in D, just extern(C) where necessary.
> 
> Right?

Hmm, perhaps I'm missing something obvious here, but what would you use
to bootstrap the front end with ? Some kind of D-to-C transmogrifier ?

--anders

Bill Baxter wrote:
> About this: http://www.digitalmars.com/d/2.0/faq.html#dogfood
> """
> The front end is in C++ in order to interface to the existing gcc and dmd back ends. It's also meant to be easily interfaced to other existing back ends, which are likely written in C++.
> """
> 
> Aren't most compiler back-ends written in C, or at least come with a C interface?  Given that basically nothing can call C++, not even C++ code from another compiler, why would you seal your back end up in C++?
> 
> It's pretty obvious that front end writers are eventually going to want to write their front ends in their target language, since everyone knows the "eat your own dogfood" mantra.   So C is really the only logical language choice for a general-purpose back-end interface.
> 
> Assuming I'm right and there is a C interface on any back end that matters, there shouldn't be any problem writing the front end in D, just extern(C) where necessary.
> 
> Right?

i'm not sure whether i understand the question, since of course it's possible to write D frontends in D - there are frontend projects in D.
there is also a C binding for LLVM and LLVM matters ;)

Anders F Björklund wrote:
> Hmm, perhaps I'm missing something obvious here, but what would you use
> to bootstrap the front end with ? Some kind of D-to-C transmogrifier ?

i don't think one would really want to port an existing backend to D just to have the whole compiler be written in D. therefore one could eventually just compile the D portion of the compiler using itself.

Anders F Björklund wrote:
> Bill Baxter wrote:
> 
>> Assuming I'm right and there is a C interface on any back end that matters, there shouldn't be any problem writing the front end in D, just extern(C) where necessary.
>>
>> Right?
> 
> Hmm, perhaps I'm missing something obvious here, but what would you use
> to bootstrap the front end with ? Some kind of D-to-C transmogrifier ?

The inelegant, but practical, answer is "the previous version of the D compiler."  It's how gcc works, basically.  When you download gcc to a box, it has a bootstrap mode which is designed to be compilable on just about any old C compiler.  Once that is built, then that bootstrap compiler is used to actually compile the gcc code (the full gcc sources use some features which might or might not work with other compilers). At least, that's how I remember it.

This obviously doesn't work if you are the first guy to write a compiler on a given platform, but on an existing platform with existing historic compilers, it works.

<plug>

This is another good reason for "dsimpl," which I suggested (in a previous post) that we write.  You could write the front-end in complex, advanced D, translate it to "simple D" using "dsimpl" and then build the compiler using a simplistic D compiler.

</plug>

Russell Lewis wrote:
> The inelegant, but practical, answer is "the previous version of the D compiler."  It's how gcc works, basically.  When you download gcc to a box, it has a bootstrap mode which is designed to be compilable on just about any old C compiler.  Once that is built, then that bootstrap compiler is used to actually compile the gcc code (the full gcc sources use some features which might or might not work with other compilers). At least, that's how I remember it.
> 
> This obviously doesn't work if you are the first guy to write a compiler on a given platform, but on an existing platform with existing historic compilers, it works.
> 
> <plug>
> 
> This is another good reason for "dsimpl," which I suggested (in a previous post) that we write.  You could write the front-end in complex, advanced D, translate it to "simple D" using "dsimpl" and then build the compiler using a simplistic D compiler.
> 
> </plug>

or you could just cross-compile, which sounds like it should be easier.

Russell Lewis wrote:

>> Hmm, perhaps I'm missing something obvious here, but what would you use
>> to bootstrap the front end with ? Some kind of D-to-C transmogrifier ?
> 
> The inelegant, but practical, answer is "the previous version of the D compiler."

That is what I suspected, which makes the whole thing kinda impractical.
I suppose D2 could be bootstrapped with D1, if one really really wanted.

Personally I prefer having the frontend written in a portable language.
There isn't that much difference between Walter's D and C++ anyway. :-)

--anders