[open-cobol-list] Re: GCC front end for COBOL

[Keisuke Nishida]

At 28 Apr 2003 14:54:20 -0700,
Geoff Keating wrote:
> 
> There are a few things that will make your front-end more successful:
> 
> 1. A test-suite.  Historically, front-ends without testsuites
>    eventually end up so broken that they're unusable.

Yes, we have some, including NIST's COBOL Test Suite.

> 2. Write it in C, and try to make it work on as many platforms as
>    possible (preferably, any platform where GCC can be built).
>    Otherwise, some developers won't be able to test the frontend.
>    (It looks like you've done this, right?)

Right.  The compiler and the run-time are both written in C.

> 3. Develop on the mainline, and integrate it well with the rest of GCC.
>    Use tree inlining.  Use the GCC coding style.  Have documentation
>    integrated with the rest of the documentation.

All right.  I will look into the mainline.

> One detail, though: are you aware that there's already a GCC frontend
> project for COBOL?  It's at <http://sourceforge.net/projects/cobolforgcc/>.

Yes, but I started a new project for convenience.
I will talk to them now.

Thanks,
Keisuke Nishida