Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by marcos100 1766 days ago
Wasn't LLVM reinventing the wheel at the time? They could just collaborate to GCC.
2 comments
ch_123 1766 days ago
They wanted to, but RMS wasn't interested at that time: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2015-02/msg00...

I have also been told by more than one person that does professional compiler development that GCC's codebase is very difficult to work with. At least some commentary I've read suggests that this was a deliberate choice on the part of the GNU project.

link
kps 1766 days ago
> I have also been told by more than one person that does professional compiler development that GCC's codebase is very difficult to work with.

Add another. (Now-former professional compiler developer.)

> At least some commentary I've read suggests that this was a deliberate choice on the part of the GNU project.

This is the ‘RMS loophole’ in the GPL. In theory you can do what you want with the source; in practice you need help from the insiders.

link
marcos100 1766 days ago
Sure, I'm not denying any problems with the GCC codebase and/or how RMS handles GNU software.

Just pointing that reinventing the wheel is not necessarily a bad thing or a waste of time.

link
_flux 1766 days ago
Maybe if GCC project wasn't opposing the ability to easily integrate third-party tools we wouldn't have LLVM to begin with.
link