Re: [PATCH] Objective-C language support.

Michael Snyder
2002-09-18T19:04:10Z

Andrew Cagney wrote:
>
> > Adam Fedor wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> This patch adds Objective-C language support to gdb based upon a patch
> >> provided by Apple Computer Inc from their version of gdb. Note that the
> >> patch only contains changes to existing files. New files (objc-lang.h,
> >> objc-lang.c, objc-exp.y) and a gdb.objc testsuite directory are located at
> >>
> >> ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/contrib/gdb-objc-patch.tar.gz
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > Oh lord. I suppose I am the only one here who is
> > even noddingly familiar with Objective C?
> >
> > There's a good chance that I wrote some of this code
> > anyway, so I'll try to have a look at it. You know,
> > of course, that we can't just drop something this huge
> > into the source tree without some review...
> >
> > I'll need the ability to run the tests. Does GCC already
> > have enough objc to compile them? Will I need any special
> > libraries?
>
> For Ada, a different approach has been taken:
>
> - commit the new files (but not changes to old files)
> - commit the makefile rules for the new files (but not changes that
> would cause these files to build by default)
> - clean the files up so that they meet current coding conventions -
> -Werror, ARI, ... (for Ada the files were all K&R, looking back.)
> - slowly contribute/merge the patches to other files
> - add the missing makefile bits making it part of GDB
>
> This way, the bulk of the code is in the mainline. I think it works
> better since:
>
> - people can see the code (there have already been several patches go
> through where the Ada code was ``fixed'' for free, just by virtue of
> being part of the repository).
> - while being developed, doesn't break the existing builds
>
> With this, the worst that can happen is the code never gets enabled.
>
> The other thing is that, very like when someone adds new a architecture,
> other than the contributor, no one immediatly cares if it doesn't work
> quite right. Just as long as it hasn't actually broken other parts of
> GDB and hasn't hasn't done anything really really nasty at the
> implementation level (ari and -Werror cover most of that).
>
> enjoy,
> Andrew

Thanks, I'll try this approach. On that principal, I will
check in the objc-specific files right away.

I do wish I had some names for their actual authors, though...

Michael