Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6) • Hacker News Board

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#11

Post by masklinn » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 1:26 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #9

Vidura wrote: post #2

So why didn't java and python made it to gcc ?

What's gcj? Oh, the Java compiler in gcc? Hmm. As for why Python isn't in gcc... it's because nobody has sent a patch. There is no conspiracy here; Google wrote Go and sent the gcc folks a patch to add it to gcc. Simple.

Also, erm… Python is not compiled to native code, so a gcc plugin doesn't really make any sense.

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#12

Post by froydnj » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 1:28 PM UTC

pmjordan wrote: post #5

Vidura wrote: post #2

So why didn't java and python made it to gcc ?

I'm trying to work out at what level your question makes sense. I'm unaware of a GCC-based Python compiler, so surely there's nothing to merge there? As for Java: http://gcc.gnu.org/java/ (this has been in for years )

There was a SoC project for a Python front-end to GCC this past summer. I don't know how far it got.

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#13

Post by masklinn » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 1:29 PM UTC

pieter wrote: post #6

Anyone else has the problem that they need to log in with a Google account before being able to see posts on Google Groups? I even have this on the group I created, which I set to the most public settings.

That seems to be if you're logged in an other Google service in the same browser/session: if I open a browser I only use for development (and not for personal stuff, so it's not logged into any Google service) such as Opera, I get the message. On the other hand if I open the link in my "usual" browser it asks me to log into Google Groups (if I'm not already logged into it)

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#14

Post by CrLf » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 1:29 PM UTC

joubert wrote: post #10

Why bother with GCC when the medium to long term seems to favor the LLVM compiler infrastructure? (and yes, I know you can use GCC together with LLVM, but for example, in Apple's case, XCode 4 now favors LLVM+Clang instead of the LLVM+GCC setup of XCode 3)

There's more to compilers than desktop/server targets. Although LLVM now targets a number os architectures, it is nowhere near what GCC supports.

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#15

Post by froydnj » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 1:31 PM UTC

joubert wrote: post #10

Why bother with GCC when the medium to long term seems to favor the LLVM compiler infrastructure? (and yes, I know you can use GCC together with LLVM, but for example, in Apple's case, XCode 4 now favors LLVM+Clang instead of the LLVM+GCC setup of XCode 3)

The long-term goal of the Go frontend is to be usable with both GCC and LLVM. GCC has excellent medium to long term prospects, too, you know.

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#16

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 1:58 PM UTC

joubert wrote: post #10

Why bother with GCC when the medium to long term seems to favor the LLVM compiler infrastructure? (and yes, I know you can use GCC together with LLVM, but for example, in Apple's case, XCode 4 now favors LLVM+Clang instead of the LLVM+GCC setup of XCode 3)

[deleted]

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#17

Post by percept » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 2:13 PM UTC

pieter wrote: post #6

Anyone else has the problem that they need to log in with a Google account before being able to see posts on Google Groups? I even have this on the group I created, which I set to the most public settings.

If you're logged in to GMail in another tab, sign out and reload the Groups page.

Also, tack 'topics?gvc=2' onto the end of any Groups URL to get the nice tabular view (you can get there through clicks but this is quicker).

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#18

Post by wazoox » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 3:06 PM UTC

xtho wrote: post #4

Vidura wrote: post #2

So why didn't java and python made it to gcc ?

Because java did make it and python doesn't compile to machine code (with the exception of using a jit compiler maybe)?

I suppose that we could retarget something like Jython to compile Python to native code?

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#19

Post by bretthoerner » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 3:14 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #11

jrockway wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's gcj? Oh, the Java compiler in gcc? Hmm. As for why Python isn't in gcc... it's because nobody has sent a patch. There is no conspiracy here; Google wrote Go and sent the gcc folks a patch to add it to gcc. Simple.

Also, erm… Python is not compiled to native code, so a gcc plugin doesn't really make any sense.

Java normally isn't, either. You're discussing implementation details, not laws.

http://gcc.gnu.org/java/

Re: Go compiler now committed to gcc mainline (to be gcc 4.6)

#20

Post by pbiggar » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 3:21 PM UTC

joubert wrote: post #10

Why bother with GCC when the medium to long term seems to favor the LLVM compiler infrastructure? (and yes, I know you can use GCC together with LLVM, but for example, in Apple's case, XCode 4 now favors LLVM+Clang instead of the LLVM+GCC setup of XCode 3)

In this particular case:

  - Go is created by google
  - Ian Lance Taylor, the author of gccgo, works for Google
  - Taylor has worked on gcc for more than a decade
  - Google uses gcc for all its infrastructure

I doubt they would object to an LLVM front-end, and I'm sure someone will create one in the future.

As to why Google doesn't use LLVM, the generated code is simply not as fast as GCC. Google (last I heard) employs about 30 compiler engineers to support gcc internally, so they're not about to switch over to a less mature platform, even though it shows great potential.