digitalmars.D - DMD back end dev-kit
- Bill Baxter (12/12) Jul 01 2008 It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people
- John Reimer (3/20) Jul 01 2008 I'd give another $100.
- Robert Fraser (4/28) Jul 01 2008 "Economic Stimulus Act" FTW.
- Bill Baxter (14/44) Jul 01 2008 GDC's problem is that it is not well maintained.
- davidl (14/56) Jul 01 2008 From my point of view, every patches should apply to DMD frontend, so t...
- John Reimer (14/46) Jul 01 2008 LLVMDC is only partially operational. gdc hasn't proven that it can "ke...
- Robert Fraser (3/53) Jul 02 2008 It appears I have been officially "pwned" here. You & Bill are right;
- John Reimer (5/9) Jul 02 2008 Well, GDC or LLVMDC might have been the way to go... if Walter were usin...
- Christopher Wright (3/5) Jul 02 2008 Or we could politely ask Walter to switch to llvm or gcc for the backend...
- John Reimer (19/27) Jul 02 2008 Similar has been suggested on several occasions. If you take a peek at ...
- Don (9/40) Jul 03 2008 IIRC, earlier this year, Walter said he was still trying to get it
- John Reimer (8/17) Jul 03 2008 Hmmmm, I must have missed or forgotten that post. That's better news th...
- BCS (3/7) Jul 03 2008 The money still works as a "statement of interest" of sorts and could be...
- BCS (5/42) Jul 03 2008 We could do it in reverse; compile the GCC backend as a lib, and ship th...
- Bill Baxter (4/9) Jul 03 2008 But GCC is GPL so merely linking against it automatically taints the
- Koroskin Denis (7/24) Jul 02 2008 I would donate $100 for that, too.
- Simen Kjaeraas (3/33) Jul 02 2008 Add another $100 from me.
- nazo (8/24) Jul 02 2008 Also opensource backend will be needed in phobos for runtime assembler
- Robert Fraser (4/12) Jul 02 2008 IIRC, Burton Radons was able to do just that... but with the DMD as an
- Mark Sanders (4/20) Jul 02 2008 If this is going to happen I'll be happy to spend 100 euro (~$157) or mo...
- BCS (3/20) Jul 02 2008 I'd chip in somthing, $20 at least, maybe more, can't say exactly how mu...
- BLS (2/18) Jul 04 2008 Add 75 euro bjoern
- JAnderson (7/23) Jul 05 2008 If it where just about money a donation button could be put on the
- Manfred_Nowak (8/9) Jul 12 2008 Because there are some and might be even more donators:
- Bill Baxter (5/14) Jul 12 2008 That sounds pretty neat. Would be cooler if they made their money by
- Manfred_Nowak (10/13) Jul 13 2008 They claim to be professionals and therefore are likely to know that
It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bb
Jul 01 2008
Hello Bill,It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd give another $100. -JJR
Jul 01 2008
John Reimer Wrote:Hello Bill,"Economic Stimulus Act" FTW. Seriously, though, there's GDC. Maybe LLVMDC, too. So while I wouldn't say no to a compiling lib of the backend, is it really needed?It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd give another $100. -JJR
Jul 01 2008
Robert Fraser wrote:John Reimer Wrote:GDC's problem is that it is not well maintained. LLVMDC's problem is that it just isn't there yet. Until one of the above two situations changes, DMD will be the compiler I actually use. And it's worth at least $100 to me in the mean time to be able to build a working version of the D compiler I actually use. Being able to fix bugs for myself or with the help of the community means at least that much to me. So it's not a question of whether it is "needed". Obviously if it were really needed then none of us would be here on this NG. D would have already failed. It is wanted. And the amount I want it right now is about $100-worth. --bbHello Bill,"Economic Stimulus Act" FTW. Seriously, though, there's GDC. Maybe LLVMDC, too. So while I wouldn't say no to a compiling lib of the backend, is it really needed?It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd give another $100. -JJR
Jul 01 2008
在 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:51:01 +0800,Bill Baxter <dnewsgroup billbaxter.com> 写道:Robert Fraser wrote:From my point of view, every patches should apply to DMD frontend, so the community gets benefit from it. While the backend dev kit gives the possibility of not *sending* the patch to DMD. The current problem of DMD development is not every patch accepted or reviewed before the next DMD release. Time & partial class is the main problem prevent me from doing some backend related stuff. I hope more people can get involved into this. And make dparser an experiment ground so people can firstly test their willing features in dparser. -- 使用 Opera 革命性的电子邮件客户程序: http://www.opera.com/mail/John Reimer Wrote:GDC's problem is that it is not well maintained. LLVMDC's problem is that it just isn't there yet. Until one of the above two situations changes, DMD will be the compiler I actually use. And it's worth at least $100 to me in the mean time to be able to build a working version of the D compiler I actually use. Being able to fix bugs for myself or with the help of the community means at least that much to me. So it's not a question of whether it is "needed". Obviously if it were really needed then none of us would be here on this NG. D would have already failed. It is wanted. And the amount I want it right now is about $100-worth. --bbHello Bill,"Economic Stimulus Act" FTW. Seriously, though, there's GDC. Maybe LLVMDC, too. So while I wouldn't say no to a compiling lib of the backend, is it really needed?It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd give another $100. -JJR
Jul 01 2008
Hello Robert,John Reimer Wrote:LLVMDC is only partially operational. gdc hasn't proven that it can "keep up". They are both very important projects, but having the complete dmd compiler means even more potential for active fixing of elusive bugs in the reference compiler, code generator optimization and updates for more recent instructions sets, improved object file format support on win32 (coff), shared-lib fixes for linux(?), experimentation, improved tool support, compiler embedding, immediate bug hunting expeditions for library developers... and easier distribution of the compiler in general -- many things that Walter doesn't have time to fix. It's not likely to happen even with the economic incentive. But having a completely open reference compiler can mean a lot when it comes to getting D adopted. This has been one of D's major handicaps, I think, for a long time. -JJRHello Bill,"Economic Stimulus Act" FTW. Seriously, though, there's GDC. Maybe LLVMDC, too. So while I wouldn't say no to a compiling lib of the backend, is it really needed?It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd give another $100. -JJR
Jul 01 2008
John Reimer Wrote:Hello Robert,It appears I have been officially "pwned" here. You & Bill are right; GDC/LLVMDC isn't sufficient.John Reimer Wrote:LLVMDC is only partially operational. gdc hasn't proven that it can "keep up". They are both very important projects, but having the complete dmd compiler means even more potential for active fixing of elusive bugs in the reference compiler, code generator optimization and updates for more recent instructions sets, improved object file format support on win32 (coff), shared-lib fixes for linux(?), experimentation, improved tool support, compiler embedding, immediate bug hunting expeditions for library developers... and easier distribution of the compiler in general -- many things that Walter doesn't have time to fix. It's not likely to happen even with the economic incentive. But having a completely open reference compiler can mean a lot when it comes to getting D adopted. This has been one of D's major handicaps, I think, for a long time. -JJRHello Bill,"Economic Stimulus Act" FTW. Seriously, though, there's GDC. Maybe LLVMDC, too. So while I wouldn't say no to a compiling lib of the backend, is it really needed?It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd give another $100. -JJR
Jul 02 2008
Hello Robert,Well, GDC or LLVMDC might have been the way to go... if Walter were using/developing them as a reference compiler. :) But that is something he apparently cannot do lest he "taint" the code. -JJRIt appears I have been officially "pwned" here. You & Bill are right; GDC/LLVMDC isn't sufficient.
Jul 02 2008
Robert Fraser wrote:It appears I have been officially "pwned" here. You & Bill are right; GDC/LLVMDC isn't sufficient.Or we could politely ask Walter to switch to llvm or gcc for the backend for dmd. Hey, he actually changed opEquals to bool...
Jul 02 2008
Hello Christopher,Robert Fraser wrote:Similar has been suggested on several occasions. If you take a peek at previous postings in this group on the topic you will see his answer which invariably is "no" with a short explanation about "tainting" (or something similar). He doesn't want to look at any other compiler code (opensource or otherwise). It's a self-imposed rule to simplify his defense in any potential legal disputes, as I understand it, since he appears to still be in the compiler business. This is completely understandable, but I think it hampers D's progress to some degree. I'm not so sure we can ever get the backend by slapping down some money, but I'd agree that it would be great if something were done... moving to an opensource backend of one sort or another would be extremely good for D. Whether or not our request is successful, the statement made here (about the donation) at least expresses how important it is to this community to see an active opensource backend as part of the reference compiler. But we probably shouldn't get our hopes up too much: the issue hasn't budged one iota for quite a long time. Yet, you never know. :) -JJRIt appears I have been officially "pwned" here. You & Bill are right; GDC/LLVMDC isn't sufficient.Or we could politely ask Walter to switch to llvm or gcc for the backend for dmd. Hey, he actually changed opEquals to bool...
Jul 02 2008
John Reimer wrote:Hello Christopher,IIRC, earlier this year, Walter said he was still trying to get it released, and did expect to be successful eventually. I doubt that the problem has much to do with money. Murky legal issues could well be a major part of it. I recently got some code from my university days open-sourced, and it was extremely painful and slow -- even after getting in-principle agreement from *everyone* who could possibly be a copyright owner, none of them were certain that they had authority to approve its release.Robert Fraser wrote:Similar has been suggested on several occasions. If you take a peek at previous postings in this group on the topic you will see his answer which invariably is "no" with a short explanation about "tainting" (or something similar). He doesn't want to look at any other compiler code (opensource or otherwise). It's a self-imposed rule to simplify his defense in any potential legal disputes, as I understand it, since he appears to still be in the compiler business. This is completely understandable, but I think it hampers D's progress to some degree. I'm not so sure we can ever get the backend by slapping down some money, but I'd agree that it would be great if something were done... moving to an opensource backend of one sort or another would be extremely good for D. Whether or not our request is successful, the statement made here (about the donation) at least expresses how important it is to this community to see an active opensource backend as part of the reference compiler. But we probably shouldn't get our hopes up too much: the issue hasn't budged one iota for quite a long time. Yet, you never know. :)It appears I have been officially "pwned" here. You & Bill are right; GDC/LLVMDC isn't sufficient.Or we could politely ask Walter to switch to llvm or gcc for the backend for dmd. Hey, he actually changed opEquals to bool...
Jul 03 2008
Hello Don,IIRC, earlier this year, Walter said he was still trying to get it released, and did expect to be successful eventually.Hmmmm, I must have missed or forgotten that post. That's better news than I expected.I doubt that the problem has much to do with money. Murky legal issues could well be a major part of it. I recently got some code from my university days open-sourced, and it was extremely painful and slow -- even after getting in-principle agreement from *everyone* who could possibly be a copyright owner, none of them were certain that they had authority to approve its release.I think a few (now) opensource projects have been that way. OpenWatcom, I think, had a long process of source cleanup and legal preparation/licensing before they could release the code. It's probably the same with Java and OpenSolaris to some degree. -JJR
Jul 03 2008
Reply to don,IIRC, earlier this year, Walter said he was still trying to get it released, and did expect to be successful eventually. I doubt that the problem has much to do with money.The money still works as a "statement of interest" of sorts and could be used as "incentive" to any reluctant parties.
Jul 03 2008
Reply to John,Hello Christopher,We could do it in reverse; compile the GCC backend as a lib, and ship that and the minimal headers to Walter and then he could develop DMD with that without ever seeing a line of (executable) GCC code. He might even be able to build and ship both GCC and DMC versions of DMD.Robert Fraser wrote:Similar has been suggested on several occasions. If you take a peek at previous postings in this group on the topic you will see his answer which invariably is "no" with a short explanation about "tainting" (or something similar). He doesn't want to look at any other compiler code (opensource or otherwise). It's a self-imposed rule to simplify his defense in any potential legal disputes, as I understand it, since he appears to still be in the compiler business. This is completely understandable, but I think it hampers D's progress to some degree. I'm not so sure we can ever get the backend by slapping down some money, but I'd agree that it would be great if something were done... moving to an opensource backend of one sort or another would be extremely good for D. Whether or not our request is successful, the statement made here (about the donation) at least expresses how important it is to this community to see an active opensource backend as part of the reference compiler. But we probably shouldn't get our hopes up too much: the issue hasn't budged one iota for quite a long time. Yet, you never know. :)It appears I have been officially "pwned" here. You & Bill are right; GDC/LLVMDC isn't sufficient.Or we could politely ask Walter to switch to llvm or gcc for the backend for dmd. Hey, he actually changed opEquals to bool...
Jul 03 2008
BCS wrote:We could do it in reverse; compile the GCC backend as a lib, and ship that and the minimal headers to Walter and then he could develop DMD with that without ever seeing a line of (executable) GCC code. He might even be able to build and ship both GCC and DMC versions of DMD.But GCC is GPL so merely linking against it automatically taints the code. Or is the current front end license GPL compatible? --bb
Jul 03 2008
Bill Baxter wrote:BCS wrote:Yup. Dual license GPL/artistic. See dmd/src/dmd/gpl.txtWe could do it in reverse; compile the GCC backend as a lib, and ship that and the minimal headers to Walter and then he could develop DMD with that without ever seeing a line of (executable) GCC code. He might even be able to build and ship both GCC and DMC versions of DMD.But GCC is GPL so merely linking against it automatically taints the code. Or is the current front end license GPL compatible? --bb
Jul 03 2008
Reply to Bill,BCS wrote:even so, wouldn't a .so/.dll get around that?We could do it in reverse; compile the GCC backend as a lib, and ship that and the minimal headers to Walter and then he could develop DMD with that without ever seeing a line of (executable) GCC code. He might even be able to build and ship both GCC and DMC versions of DMD.But GCC is GPL so merely linking against it automatically taints the code. Or is the current front end license GPL compatible? --bb
Jul 05 2008
On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:03:32 +0400, John Reimer <terminal.node gmail.com> wrote:Hello Bill,I would donate $100 for that, too. Not that much for a few man-year project, for we *NEED* that urgently. Plain old .lib file with stripped-off debug symbols and a dmd-only license would do the trick. Please, Walter!It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd give another $100. -JJR
Jul 02 2008
Koroskin Denis <2korden gmail.com> wrote:On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:03:32 +0400, John Reimer <terminal.node gmail.com> wrote:Add another $100 from me. -- SimenHello Bill,I would donate $100 for that, too. Not that much for a few man-year project, for we *NEED* that urgently. Plain old .lib file with stripped-off debug symbols and a dmd-only license would do the trick. Please, Walter!It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd give another $100. -JJR
Jul 02 2008
Also opensource backend will be needed in phobos for runtime assembler and runtime D compiling feature :) Runtime generations: Xbyak library is runtime assembler for C++. tcc can be used as runtime C compiler. but D? Bill Baxter Wrote:It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bb
Jul 02 2008
nazo Wrote:Also opensource backend will be needed in phobos for runtime assembler and runtime D compiling feature :) Runtime generations: Xbyak library is runtime assembler for C++. tcc can be used as runtime C compiler. but D?IIRC, Burton Radons was able to do just that... but with the DMD as an executable, not a lib. See: http://www.digitalmars.com/webnews/newsgroups.php?art_group=digitalmars.D.announce&article_id=11436
Jul 02 2008
Bill Baxter wrote:It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbIf this is going to happen I'll be happy to spend 100 euro (~$157) or more. -- Mark Sanders.
Jul 02 2008
Reply to Bill,It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbI'd chip in somthing, $20 at least, maybe more, can't say exactly how much right now... (man I whish Marx hadn't been wrong).
Jul 02 2008
Bill Baxter schrieb:It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbAdd 75 euro bjoern
Jul 04 2008
Bill Baxter wrote:It's been talked about before, but exactly how much money do the people who own the copyright to DMD's backend want in order to make it freely available freely -- as at least a lib? It's hard to believe anyone would appraise that thing with a high dollar value given its less than stellar optimization abilities, and since everyone knows you can't make much money off dev tools these days anyway. I'd happily chip in $100 US if it meant finally having an official D compiler that anyone can recompile for themselves just by typing "make dmd". Or is it more a matter of not being able to find the copyright holders in question to ask them? If so, give us the names and whatever info you have, and I bet someone will be able to track 'em down. --bbIf it where just about money a donation button could be put on the digitalmars website and every other D website, with a target (whatever unreachable number that is). It would only transfer the amount across when that amount was reached. I'd give 100. -Joel
Jul 05 2008
Bill Baxter wrote:I'd happily chip in $100 USBecause there are some and might be even more donators: http://www.fundable.com/ -manfred -- Maybe some knowledge of some types of disagreeing and their relation can turn out to be useful: http://blog.createdebate.com/2008/04/07/writing-strong-arguments/
Jul 12 2008
Manfred_Nowak wrote:Bill Baxter wrote:That sounds pretty neat. Would be cooler if they made their money by advertising instead of taking a 10% cut. 10% seems like a lot for doing something that seems rather simple. --bbI'd happily chip in $100 USBecause there are some and might be even more donators: http://www.fundable.com/ -manfred
Jul 12 2008
Bill Baxter wrote:10% seems like a lot for doing something that seems rather simple.They claim to be professionals and therefore are likely to know that simplicity, which may result in an openness for negotiation _before_ starting anything on their platform. Because they require goals as low as low 200$, close to 20$ should do for any amount. -manfred -- Maybe some knowledge of some types of disagreeing and their relation can turn out to be useful: http://blog.createdebate.com/2008/04/07/writing-strong-arguments/
Jul 13 2008