Richard Kenner wrote:
I don't follow. If you're developing an optimizer, you need to do the bootstrap to test the optimizer no matter how it connects to the rest of the compiler. All you save is that you do a smaller link, but that time is measured in seconds on modern machines.
No, you don't. All you need is an existing GCC binary installed somewhere in your path that accepts -fplugin=mypass.so. All you compile is your pass, you don't need to even build GCC.
Plug-ins also facilitate other kinds of work that are not related to optimization passes. Static analysis, refactoring tools, visualization, code navigation, etc. Sean described a variety of different applications they had implemented with their plug-in framework at the last summit. It was all pretty impressive.
I agree with your point of not getting into legal discussions here, so I won't comment on your previous posting.
Diego.
