NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/lang/modula3/899

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-02 | 1.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!news.byu.edu!news.mtholyoke.edu!nic.umass.edu!dime!dime.cs.umass.edu!moss
From: [e-mail] (Eliot Moss)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula3
Subject: Re: What is the current status of GNU Modula 3?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 3 Sep 92 02:35:34 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Dept of Comp and Info Sci, Univ of Mass (Amherst)
Lines: 23
In-reply-to: [e-mail]'s message of 2 Sep 92 00:28:59 GMT

I can expand on Rick Hudson's comments a bit. We have substantial parts of the
language compiling the VAX code using the gcc back end. The front end is gcc
changed to accept Modula-3 syntax, and considerably enhanced to do two passes
to resolve names (as required by Modula-3) and to implement/enforce Modula-3
semantics. Much of the data structure and some of the algorithms are retained
from gcc. The back end has been enhanced only to support things not present in
C, such as exceptions and garabge collection. Those hard things are all
working. It's the raft of little things, such as complete floating point and
string support, all the built in functions, etc., etc., that we're mostly into
now. With two of us moving to CMU for the year (sabbatical) and a new person
being trained up, there's been some disruption, but things are still getting
done and I think you might see something without threads by the end of the
calendar year. We had hoped for September, but vacations and things had more
effect than we anticipated. The garbage collector is indeed running, though,
which is more than we could say in June.
--

        J. Eliot B. Moss, Associate Professor
        Department of Computer Science
        Lederle Graduate Research Center
        University of Massachusetts
        Amherst, MA  01003
        [phone], 545-1249 (fax); [e-mail]