Port to binutils without assembler

Port to binutils without assembler

[Galit Heller]

Hello,

I'm a member of  a  team at National Semiconductor, which develops
and supports a developement toolset for National Semiconductor's
CompactRISC CPUs. The compiler, linker and debugger are a gnu based
port (currently for CR16C).

We are planning to begin the process of submitting the port -
initially to binutils - and we have a preliminary question:
can we submit to binutils w/o the assembler ? This is because the
assembler is currently not ported to gnu. We would be willing to
assign the assembler's (proprietary) source code to the FSF under
GPL, if this were to help. Note that this assembler interfaces
correctly with the ported gcc and ld.

Thanks,
Galit Heller

Re: Port to binutils without assembler

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Galit,

> I'm a member of  a  team at National Semiconductor, which develops
> and supports a development toolset for National Semiconductor's
> CompactRISC CPUs. The compiler, linker and debugger are a gnu based
> port (currently for CR16C).
>
> We are planning to begin the process of submitting the port -
> initially to binutils - and we have a preliminary question:
> can we submit to binutils w/o the assembler ?

This is actually quite a complex question.  One the hand, the FSF is
very reluctant to accept any contributions which will make a user
reliant on proprietary software.  Their goal is to free software from
ownership and instead put it in the public domain.  So although a
binutils linker for the CR16C might be nice, on its own it is not
enough to create a free set of tools for the architecture.

On the other hand, by accepting and making available a free linker,
the binutils project might encourage CompactRISC CPU users to develop
and release a port of GAS as well.  Thereby achieving the goal of a
completely free set of binary utilities for the architecture.

> This is because the assembler is currently not ported to gnu.

Does this mean that you do have plans to port GAS to the CompactRISC
architecture ?  If so, do you also plan to contribute this port
if/when it is complete ?

> We would be willing to assign the assembler's (proprietary) source
> code to the FSF under GPL, if this were to help.

It would certainly help.  With a free assembler, even if it is not
GAS, a programmer would be able to obtain a completely free set of
binary tools for the CR16C, which matches the FSF goals in this area.


So - in conclusion - yes the binutils project would be prepared to
accept a CR16C linker contribution, provided that:

  a. The appropriate FSF copyright assignments were made
  
& b. A free assembler was also available.  (This does not have to be
     GAS, although that would be nice).

Cheers
        Nick Clifton
        Binutils Head Maintainer