I just wanted to say how nice it is having and working with the DMD source, and how nice the whole submission process (ie bugzilla) is.

A couple years ago, there were some things I wanted to try to do with GCC, but it was a nightmare. Took forever to figure out how to get things set up to properly compile the GCC sources (this was under windows). Then the actual build took hours per-attempt, and I had to do it a few times, because it kept running into problems mid-way through. Then when I was ready to try to make my changes, finding my way through the source was a like navigating the world's most devious maze while blindfolded and walking backwards. And the one thing I never did figure out was just how the heck the submission process worked. Best I could figure, part of it seemed to even involve "wait for the right month". I messed with it on and off for weeks before finally giving up.

So I was a bit put-off from attempting to build and contribute to compilers, and hadn't attempted to do anything with or even look at the DMD source since the before the backend's source was released, until now.

I finally got motivated to try to do a patch ('zilla #2567, FWIW), and, wow, it went smooth:

I downloaded DMC, made some very minor changes to the makefile (only because I seem to have another conflicting tool named "sc" in my path), successfully recompiled it, found the locations in the source I needed, changed a few lines, recompiled again, tested, it worked, attached a patch to bugzilla, and was done in no more than about a couple of hours. Wow!

Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> I just wanted to say how nice it is having and working with the DMD source, and how nice the whole submission process (ie bugzilla) is.

Yes, and now with the new look of bugzilla, you'd feel you're browsing
Enterprise's bugzilla :o). Thanks Brad.

I'm glad to finally see a good word out here. It's been a few good days
since there's been little more than incessant and unjustified (IMHO) whining.


Andrei