See ../README. The frontend is written in C++. The frontend lexes and parses the input into an IR specific to this frontend known as gogo. It then runs a series of passes over the code. Finally it converts gogo to gcc's GENERIC. A goal is to move the gcc support code into a gcc-interface subdirectory. The gcc code will be put under the GPL. The rest of the frontend will not include any gcc header files. Issues to be faced in this transition: * Representation of source locations. + Currently the frontend uses gcc's source_location codes, using the interface in libcpp/line-map.h. * Handling of error messages. + Currently the frontend uses gcc's error_at and warning_at functions. + Currently the frontend uses gcc's diagnostic formatter, using features such as %<%> for appropriate quoting. + Localization may be an issue. This compiler works, but the code is a work in progress. Notably, the support for garbage collection is ineffective and needs a complete rethinking. The frontend pays little attention to its memory usage and rarely frees any memory. The code could use a general cleanup which we have not had time to do. Contributing ============= To contribute patches to the files in this directory, please see http://golang.org/doc/gccgo_contribute.html . The master copy of these files is hosted at http://code.google.com/p/gofrontend . Changes to these files require signing a Google contributor license agreement. If you are the copyright holder, you will need to agree to the individual contributor license agreement at http://code.google.com/legal/individual-cla-v1.0.html. This agreement can be completed online. If your organization is the copyright holder, the organization will need to agree to the corporate contributor license agreement at http://code.google.com/legal/corporate-cla-v1.0.html. If the copyright holder for your code has already completed the agreement in connection with another Google open source project, it does not need to be completed again.