See ../README.
The frontend is written in C++.
The frontend lexes and parses the input into an IR specific to this
frontend known as gogo. It then runs a series of passes over the
code.
Finally it converts gogo to gcc's GENERIC. A goal is to move the gcc
support code into a gcc-interface subdirectory. The gcc code will be
put under the GPL. The rest of the frontend will not include any gcc
header files.
Issues to be faced in this transition:
* Representation of source locations.
+ Currently the frontend uses gcc's source_location codes, using the
interface in libcpp/line-map.h.
* Handling of error messages.
+ Currently the frontend uses gcc's error_at and warning_at
functions.
+ Currently the frontend uses gcc's diagnostic formatter, using
features such as %<%> for appropriate quoting.
+ Localization may be an issue.
This compiler works, but the code is a work in progress. Notably, the
support for garbage collection is ineffective and needs a complete
rethinking. The frontend pays little attention to its memory usage
and rarely frees any memory. The code could use a general cleanup
which we have not had time to do.
Contributing
=============
To contribute patches to the files in this directory, please see
http://golang.org/doc/gccgo_contribute.html .
The master copy of these files is hosted at
http://code.google.com/p/gofrontend . Changes to these files require
signing a Google contributor license agreement. If you are the
copyright holder, you will need to agree to the individual contributor
license agreement at
http://code.google.com/legal/individual-cla-v1.0.html. This agreement
can be completed online.
If your organization is the copyright holder, the organization will
need to agree to the corporate contributor license agreement at
http://code.google.com/legal/corporate-cla-v1.0.html.
If the copyright holder for your code has already completed the
agreement in connection with another Google open source project, it
does not need to be completed again.
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