RE: How to contribute in the back end part

RE: How to contribute in the back end part

[Rupert Wood]

Arpad Beszedes wrote:

> We would like to contribute to GCC by improving the ARM target 
> (cross-compiler). This work would involve some code optimization and 
> code generation issues.

Most of the optimization code lives in the middle end, and there are
already a few branched-projects which are attempting to improve this. If
your optimizations aren't completely ARM-specific, then they might
belong there instead.

> I would like to ask for a good starting point to do this job. We are
> completely new to GCC, so a tutorial-like document would be very
> useful. Is there any other document beside the "GCC internals",
> which could make us able to make useful contributions to GCC?
> (Or is it the source code the only "real documentation"?)

The manual is a good guide, but unfortunately it's out of date and/or
wrong in a few places; the only source of "real documentation" is the
code itself. There's a simpler introduction to the backend as part of
Hans-Peter Nilsson's "Porting GCC for Dunces", which is top of the list
on the further readings page:

    http://gcc.gnu.org/readings.html

If you'd like a gentler introduction to the GCC source then you can
tackle any of the 'beginner' projects:

    http://gcc.gnu.org/projects/beginner.html

but it may be easier to dive straight in to the backend.

Finally, it may be worth talking to the ARM port maintainers (see the
MAINTAINERS file in the GCC distribution) if there are complicated
ARM-specific things that you'd like to do.

If you'd like to submit your changes back for inclusion in release GCC
then you'll need to complete a copyright assignment; you can find the
details here:

    http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2001-08/msg01142.html

Rup.

How to contribute in the back end part

[Arpad Beszedes]

Hi all!

We would like to contribute to GCC by improving the ARM target 
(cross-compiler). This work would involve some code optimization and 
code generation issues. I would like to ask for a good starting point to 
do this job. We are completely new to GCC, so a tutorial-like document 
would be very useful. Is there any other document beside the "GCC 
internals", which could make us able to make useful contributions to 
GCC? (Or is it the source code the only "real documentation"?)

Thanks in advance,
   Arpad Beszedes.

-- 
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*  Arpad Beszedes - researcher                                   *
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*  Research Group on Artificial Intelligence - RGAI              *
*  Hungarian Academy of Sciences & University of Szeged, Hungary *
*  e-mail: beszedes@cc.u-szeged.hu                               *
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