I was wondering what the schedule for the GDC release is, since GDC is quite a bit behind on the dlang frontend version.
Is it a release whenever a couple new major D features appear? A new release when there's a bugfix? Or does GDC follow GCC's release cycle? Even then, when does new checked-in code make it into the actual release?

On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 12:00:48PM +0000, Sjoerd Nijboer via D.gnu wrote:
> I was wondering what the schedule for the GDC release is, since GDC is
> quite a bit behind on the dlang frontend version.
> Is it a release whenever a couple new major D features appear? A new
> release when there's a bugfix? Or does GDC follow GCC's release cycle?
> Even then, when does new checked-in code make it into the actual
> release?

IIRC, GDC follows GCC's release cycle.


T

-- 
Klein bottle for rent ... inquire within. -- Stephen Mulraney

On Monday, 30 September 2019 at 15:17:01 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 12:00:48PM +0000, Sjoerd Nijboer via D.gnu wrote:
>> I was wondering what the schedule for the GDC release is, since GDC is
>> quite a bit behind on the dlang frontend version.
>> Is it a release whenever a couple new major D features appear? A new
>> release when there's a bugfix? Or does GDC follow GCC's release cycle?
>> Even then, when does new checked-in code make it into the actual
>> release?
>
> IIRC, GDC follows GCC's release cycle.
>
>
> T

That's what confuses me, according to the GDC project website that is linked to at the dlang download page the underlying GCC version of GDC is 3 major versions behind GCC.
Should I be worried if I want to use GDC?

On Tuesday, 1 October 2019 at 20:16:14 UTC, Sjoerd Nijboer wrote:
> That's what confuses me, according to the GDC project website that is linked to at the dlang download page the underlying GCC version of GDC is 3 major versions behind GCC.
> Should I be worried if I want to use GDC?

As far as I understand it / remember, the DMD frontend version that was merged into GCC 9 was based on the last version of the DMD that was still written in C++ before it got bootstrapped to D (2.068 or something) because GCC 9 needs to be able to be compiled with GCC 8 (which doesn't have D).

Now GCC 9 has D, a more modern version of DMD's frontend can be merged into GCC 10.
However, there is some trouble because a recent bug-fix (the non-global template issue, 5710) made it harder to update the D frontend for GDC because it changed the glue code significantly, which has to be adapted / reverted for GCC's backend.

See: https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/9702#issuecomment-516737748

I haven't heard anything since, so I don't know what's going to happen.
Iain Buclaw is the one qualified to talk about this.

I personally just use LDC currently, which closely follows DMD releases.
It would be really cool if GCC contains a modern D compiler though.

On Tue, 1 Oct 2019 at 22:45, Dennis via D.gnu <d.gnu@puremagic.com> wrote:
>
> On Tuesday, 1 October 2019 at 20:16:14 UTC, Sjoerd Nijboer wrote:
> > That's what confuses me, according to the GDC project website
> > that is linked to at the dlang download page the underlying GCC
> > version of GDC is 3 major versions behind GCC.
> > Should I be worried if I want to use GDC?
>
> As far as I understand it / remember, the DMD frontend version that was merged into GCC 9 was based on the last version of the DMD that was still written in C++ before it got bootstrapped to D (2.068 or something) because GCC 9 needs to be able to be compiled with GCC 8 (which doesn't have D).
>
> Now GCC 9 has D, a more modern version of DMD's frontend can be
> merged into GCC 10.
> However, there is some trouble because a recent bug-fix (the
> non-global template issue, 5710) made it harder to update the D
> frontend for GDC because it changed the glue code significantly,
> which has to be adapted / reverted for GCC's backend.
>
> See: https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/9702#issuecomment-516737748
>
> I haven't heard anything since, so I don't know what's going to
> happen.
> Iain Buclaw is the one qualified to talk about this.
>
> I personally just use LDC currently, which closely follows DMD
> releases.
> It would be really cool if GCC contains a modern D compiler
> though.

At this rate, the best things to focus on will be getting more ports and platforms added and feature complete - OSX, MinGW, BSDs on SPARC, PPC, HPPA, etc...

There are a couple bootstrap problems that have come to light both from compiling with current dmd master, or when testing for the first time the jump from first to second stage bootstrap.

I have taken pretty much 4 months off with intermittent brief returns since Dconf to rebase and test dmd master (those who were present at Dconf will know why) and my free time will likely only reduce further from here on out for the next decade or so.

-- 
Iain

On Monday, 21 October 2019 at 19:19:16 UTC, Iain Buclaw wrote:
> I have taken pretty much 4 months off with intermittent brief returns since Dconf to rebase and test dmd master (those who were present at Dconf will know why) and my free time will likely only reduce further from here on out for the next decade or so.

Sad to hear that, but thank you for your work on putting D in GCC.
Is there a donation incentive for it already? If not, you may want to talk to Mike Parker about that.

On Mon, 21 Oct 2019 at 22:15, Dennis via D.gnu <d.gnu@puremagic.com> wrote:
>
> On Monday, 21 October 2019 at 19:19:16 UTC, Iain Buclaw wrote:
> > I have taken pretty much 4 months off with intermittent brief returns since Dconf to rebase and test dmd master (those who were present at Dconf will know why) and my free time will likely only reduce further from here on out for the next decade or so.
>
> Sad to hear that, but thank you for your work on putting D in GCC. Is there a donation incentive for it already? If not, you may want to talk to Mike Parker about that.

I briefly received intermittent reimbursements for infrastructure costs for various CI components I have running, that stopped since Andrei stepped down and his preferred form of payment platform decided to close up shop.

-- 
Iain