Re: Some notes on the Wiki

[Paul Koning <pkoning@equallogic.com>]

>>>>> "Kevin" == Kevin Handy <kth@srv.net> writes:

 Kevin> Paul Koning wrote:
 >>>>>>> "Joseph" == Joseph S Myers <joseph@codesourcery.com> writes:
 >>>>>>> 
 >>>>>>> 
 >>
 Joseph> On Mon, 11 Jul 2005, Michael Cieslinski wrote:
 >> >> I also could convert parts of the ggcinternals manual into wiki
 >> >> pages.  But only if there is a consensus about this being the
 >> way >> to go.
 >> 
 Joseph> I'm sure it's the wrong way to go.  I find a properly
 Joseph> formatted and indexed book far more convenient for learning
 Joseph> about substantial areas of compiler internals, or for finding
 Joseph> what some particular macro is specified to do, than a wiki.
 >> I'll second that.  Unlike some other major GNU projects, GCC's
 >> internals manual is substantial and very good.  Yes, it needs
 >> ongoing improvement, but I'd prefer that rather than flipping to
 >> Twiki.
 >> 
 Kevin> In order to show how good the internals documents are, try to
 Kevin> build a very simple front end using ONLY the documentation.
 Kevin> Make it of the order of a hardwired "int main() { return 0}".
 Kevin> Or better yet, find an outsider who knows C, but not GCC
 Kevin> internals, to write it.

 Kevin> No outside source can be used (i.e. no source code not
 Kevin> included in the documentation).

 Kevin> It cannot be done. Not even close. Not even if you allow
 Kevin> tree.def.

Quite true.  On the other hand, for backends things are in far better
shape.  And for my comment on other projects, compare the GCC
internals doc with the internals doc for GDB -- you'll see the point.

	  paul