Re: C/C++ front-end extension a la SWIG?

[Mike Stump <mrs@windriver.com>]

> Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 17:21:39 -0700
> From: thi <ttn@revel.glug.org>

> i understand gcc backend is unlikely to be librarified (from reading
> the thread: http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2000-01/msg00257.html ), but
> how about the C/C++ front-end?  what i'd like is to be able to
> integrate guile w/ the parser so as to be able to map .h
> declarations to make glue code.

> this is similar to what swig ( http://www.swig.org ) currently does,
> but i'm thinking it would be better to use the widely used and
> tested parser from gcc than the swig parser, which does not grok
> many C++isms.

> does this make sense?  is there anyone working on something like
> this?  would this kind of work be harmful to the free software
> community?  is there a better approach (that allows me to use the
> gcc parser)?

How about this, we settle on something like swig, and have gcc/g++
generate swig friendly data into a file, and then have swig read that
file and generate what it needs to.  The xref stuff in the compiler
might be worth dusting off, it might be kinda like what one wants
(I've not thought about this much, I've not studied swig).  Should be
fairly low maintenance, can be used/reused for other languages
(GNU Fortran/GNU Ada...)