Re: Current state of the `ooc' project?

[Mike Griebling <grieblm@trt.allied.com>]

> Hello!
> 
> As Michael van Acken sent a TODO list, I'm very much interested in
> what is already done or will be done in the near future.

State of the PPC back-end for BeBox:

I'm porting an ETH compiler (for use as a boot-strapping compiler
since I hate C++).  To port the ETH compiler I need to do the
following (most of which will be reusable on OOC):

I have a complete PPC code generator (stolen from an ETH compiler).
Currently I'm in the process of adapting this compiler to generate
an XCOFF object file which should be supported on the BeBox in the
next OS release (Apr '96).

Still to do:

1) Produce runtime for the BeBox -- this will basically only require
   the memory allocation routines.  Maybe these can be made more or
   less portable so other back-enders can reuse it?  As a start I'm
   using the ETH memory allocation routines.  I'll also have a very
   simple exception handler built in.

2) Produce C stubs to handle the OS interface.  This could be a
   shared library with which the compiler output will be linked.

3) Possibly tie this compiler into the Metrowerks IDE.

That should get me to the point where I have a working Oberon-2 compiler
on the BeBox.  The next stages will then be to add this back-end to OOC.
I'm still kind of waiting as well for someone else to develop an interface
between the GSA tree and a typical code generator.
 
> But now for you. As the frontend is there and considered `working',
> I'm very much interested if someone has got some experience in trying
> to write a backend for the GSA code. I myself have no idea how the GSA
> code could be translated to object files (machine language) for a
> specific processor.

I haven't played around with the GSA code yet.
 
> Also, has anyone tried to work on some optimization stuff?

Not me.
 
> So long,
>   Juergen Zimmermann

Regards,
	Michael
--------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Griebling, P. Eng.		mgriebling@bix.com
Computer Inspirations			grieblm@trt.allied.com