RFC: GDB Objc-Branch

[David Ayers]

Hello everyone,
hello Adam!

Due to the recent developments on the gdb mailing lists, I would like to 
post the following proposal to gdb-patches.

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Let me first formally introduce myself. My name is David Ayers and I am 
a GNUstep developer.

In light of the current situation concerning the ObjC-patches, I would 
like to propose for Adam to open an fedor_objc-200303?? branch for gdb.
With this, I mean to address the following:

1. Allow Adam incorporate his work in gdb's cvs repository instead of a 
local copy.
2. Allow more people to submit further ObjC support to the branch 
maintainers.
3. Allow more people to actively track mainline changes in this branch 
to avoid bit-rotting while patches are being reviewed.
4. Allow patch reviewers to see the single patches in light of the 
general context.
5. Allow patch reviewers and ObjC developers easy access to a gdb 
version with working ObjC support.

Richard? others? and I would volunteer in tracking mainline's changes in 
the branch to counter the bit-rotting, and we could repost updated 
versions of submitted patches against mainline when applicable.

I would also like to follow up on Michael Chastain offer to integrate 
this branch into his test bed and diff reports against mainline.
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I'm not necessarily sure whether I can *really* help on adding ObjC 
support to gdb, but I think it shouldn't be *too* difficult to track 
changes in mainline, and therefore relieve Adam of some tedious work.

We could have a file in our gdb branch in which we record links to the 
currently submitted patches or their updated versions.  That way the 
"mainline trackers" and the patch reviewers would have a one stop 
overview on outstanding patches.

I would also volunteer to regularly wrap up a stable tarball of the 
branch and make it available on ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/ 
somewhere.

I know I'm actually over committed already with the GDL2 test suite and 
some of the changes I proposed for GSWeb, but I think that access to a 
working gdb with ObjC support should make these projects easier to tackle.

Thoughts? Reservations?

Cheers,
Dave