Re: Emacs contributions, C and Lisp

[Óscar Fuentes]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

> But if the plug-in writes the whole program as an AST and compilation
> uses some other back-end, it probably won't use libgcc, so those
> conditions on libgcc won't apply at all.
>
> I am very concerned lest the GCC back ends to be replaced with LLVM,
> which permits proprietary changes and proprietary back ends.

That already happened long time ago:

http://dragonegg.llvm.org/

It is now abandoned, mostly because Clang is a better front-end than
GCC.

One key fact that was repeatedly mentioned but you insist on ignoring is
that, from the technical POV, Clang+LLVM is far more attractive than GCC
for any compiler-related task, and on top of that it has no legal
hurdles, so only a clueless proprietary developer would choose GCC as a
basis for his compiler-related product.

The bad news for you is that people that are creating Free Software or
are learning compiler development are using Clang+LLVM too. GCC is only
a reasonable option if you veto Clang+LLVM for political reasons, but
even then you insist on adding difficulties to the work of those who are
amenable enough to play by your rules.