This is the mail archive of the
gdb@sourceware.org
mailing list for the GDB project.
Re: Move GDB to C++ ?
- From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>
- To: Daniel Jacobowitz <drow at false dot org>
- Cc: vladimir at codesourcery dot com, gdb at sources dot redhat dot com
- Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:46:25 +0300
- Subject: Re: Move GDB to C++ ?
- References: <487658F7.1090508@earthlink.net> <g6rl1b$t7m$1@ger.gmane.org> <ufxppopyj.fsf@gnu.org> <20080801131312.GA14712@caradoc.them.org>
- Reply-to: Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>
> Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:13:12 -0400
> From: Daniel Jacobowitz <drow@false.org>
> Cc: Vladimir Prus <vladimir@codesourcery.com>, gdb@sources.redhat.com
>
> On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 09:42:28PM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > From: Vladimir Prus <vladimir@codesourcery.com>
> > > Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:10:37 +0400
> > >
> > > I think this discussion went a bit wrong way -- trying to convince folks that
> > > *investing effort* in converting to C++ is justified. However, I don't think
> > > the proposal is about making folks not interested in C++ doing any work -- the
> > > proposal is about allowing folks who do some specific work, and want to make
> > > use of additional features C++ provides, to use those features, while not imposing
> > > significant problems on the rest of contributors.
> >
> > Your being busy refactoring does impose a significant problem on me.
> > We are members of the same team, so how you use your time while on the
> > team is important to me.
>
> Could you please expand on this idea?
The idea is that a maintainer cannot behave with the code as he
pleases, claiming that it's his time and therefore his, and only his,
business.
The idea is also that GDB is a collective effort, so arguments saying
"I will do this because I like it, and you shouldn't care" are not
something I'm willing to accept.
> GDB is a GNU project, driven by volunteers and sponsored contributors.
> And the sponsored contributors are volunteers from the perspective of
> anyone outside the sponsoring organization. I don't understand the
> objection to other people choosing to invest effort on something, even
> if you think it's unimportant. Volunteer projects go where their
> volunteers want to take them!
We are not talking about just any change here. We are talking about a
change that will affect everyone. Taking a volunteer project in such
directions without consensus isn't right, IMO. Vladimir's message in
effect tried to side-step the lack of consensus, which is not how I
thought GDB development should advance.
> And I think one of the bit structural issues in GDB is that it's hard
> for even active volunteers to take it to new places. I want to make
> that easier.
So do I, but what new places are we talking about? Until now, I fail
to see even a single direction in which someone would like to go,
while the fact that GDB is written in C makes that hard.