[gnu.gcc] GNU Modula-2 or other languages

ken@gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii) (12/03/88)

I asked this question something like a year ago and got little response, but I
thought I might give it another spin.

Is anyone working on or planning to work on front ends for the the GNU
compiler back-end that translate languages other than 'c' and 'c++'?  I have
been informed that the back end was written with some degree of thought toward
inplimenting other languages throught it.

In particular, I would be interested in seeing a Modula-2 (or much better, 
Modula-3, as per Olivetti's work in the area) compiler and perhaps a Common 
Lisp.

Another, perhaps more interesting, language of interest might be Bertrand's
Eiffel language.

This is, of course, not a slap at the FSF's excellent work on the exsisting
languages.  And I don't want to dilute the FSF's effort with too many
languages (if you want GNU BASIC or GNU COBOL, you need to be hurt 1/2 ;'}),
but all the worlds not 'c'.

If we could, I'd like NOT to hear about individuals religion concerning one
language versus another.  This is not an appropriate forum...

Thanks...

	ken seefried iii	...!{akgua, allegra, amd, harpo, hplabs, 
	ken@gatech.edu		masscomp, rlgvax, sb1, uf-cgrl, unmvax,
	ccastks@gitvm1.bitnet	ut-ngp, ut-sally}!gatech!ken

        "Children is more trouble than human beings!" -- Popeye the Sailor

rms@WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Stallman) (12/03/88)

I have a volunteer who wants to write Fortran.  Aside from this, I
don't know of any other project now in progress to write another front
end for GNU CC.  Someone at Olivetti was going to work on a Modula 3
front end, but he has reportedly given up trying to persuade
management to let him work on any free software.

A Lisp front end of any sort might not impractical, because a Lisp
compiler must normally reside within the Lisp system.

If you would like to write a front end, please contact me.