Subject: Re: self-hosting gc From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 09:57:15 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3224397443760956@naggum.net> * tb+usenet@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG) | One might well need bootstrap in designing and initially building the | system. But now, one needs *only* GCC to build GCC, and not anything | else. Once one has a running system with GCC, you don't any longer | need the pcc compilers that GCC was originally built with. I actually tried to argue that the same would true of a Common Lisp system, but that portability constraints dictate that those who want to port a Common Lisp compiler to System X on the Y processor should be able to use the portable assembler (C) instead of having to start off writing non-portable assembler and use the system's assembler to bootstrap from. Needing *only* GCC, as you say, is predicated on the existence of a binary for your system to begin with. How do people port GCC to a new platform om which they intend to build the GNU system? My take on this is that it is no less dependent on some other existing C compiler than the similar problem for CL compilers is. Duane, please help. :) /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.