[fpc-devel] Re: fpc-devel Digest, Vol 112, Issue 32

[Sven Barth]

On 23.08.2013 19:44, Steve wrote:
>> 2) If an existing FPC developer wants to get involved, it's not
>> reasonable
>> to expect him to have to work up the learning curve of MVS before he can
>> actually run the target environment. Linux on Hercules is a no-brainer.
>
> Linux on Hercules is a no-brainer for Linux users; Not all fpc
> developers will be Linux users.

Mark is talking about compiler developers here. And most of us are 
either using Linux as the main platform or at least as a platform where 
we develop for nevertheless. So yes, basically all FPC compiler 
developers are Linux users more or less.

>> I'm /not/ banging the drum unreservedly for GCC and Linux, but IBM
>> (and many
>> other companies) promote it as a "universal API" and I like to think that
>> they're not total idiots.
>
> Firstly, I am not necessarily proposing that we don't concentrate on
> Linux initially, in fact it makes a certain amount of sense (In a
> perverted way :)) My EXAMPLES concentrate on MVS because that's my
> background.

I don't see what would be perverted about that... it might at first 
restrict the potential user base, but it would only be a first step to 
allow implementing a more or less working code generator and that other 
OSes can be tackled.

>> There's also the issue of the assembler reader (used, if I understand
>> things
>> correctly, to parse inline assembler mostly in the lower-level bits of
>> the
>> RTL). This seems to cause almost as much problem during development as
>> the
>> assembler writer, and having to support (or at least pass through)
>> complex
>> assembler macros isn't going to make things any easier.
>
> I don't really see why passing macro calls through to an external
> assembler is any different than passing 'raw' code.  It's just text
> isn't it?

Writing assembler by hand is not necessarily the same as letting a 
compiler write assembler code. At least in FPC the assembly language of 
each processor is abstracted in operations which are hold in lists and 
using an assembler writer (of which there can be multiple to target 
different assemblers) this list is turned into the final file.

> "Here's some code, assemble it, and be quick about it johnny!"

Was that a Short Circuit reference? O.o

Regards,
Sven