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hsutter / cppfront

A personal experimental C++ Syntax 2 -> Syntax 1 compiler
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Question: Thoughts on a theoretical "reference" compiler/toolchain. #858

Closed LouChiSoft closed 9 months ago

LouChiSoft commented 9 months ago

Hi, apologies if this is the wrong place to ask or if you have already answered the question before. But I couldn't find a better place so here goes:

While cppfront right now converts Cpp2 code to Cpp1 code and then uses a standard Cpp1 compiler and toolchain in the future it might (and I hope) become it's own thing in it's own bubble. In that event could it be worth in having a reference compiler/toolchain that runs on the big three platforms. Most "Cpp replacement" languages have a single compiler that has the same features regardless of the platform it's installed on (with some expections) and it dramatically simplifies the toolchain setups for these languages.

On the Cpp side of things when new standards come out we common have a transitionary period where not all features are implemented or are only partially implemented. Sometimes this process is fast, sometimes it's very slow. It would be nice if for Cpp2 if when a new language standard, or however you end up versioning the language, is released that would translate to "A new version of Cpp2 is out and the reference toolchain has been updated to support all the new features/changes" so that developers can reliably create crossplatform software just by using the same version of the toolchain/compiler on each platform.

I know this would be a far future concern, but I figured it couldn't hurt to at least think about. Thanks

Edit: As it turns out, I chose the wrong template and ended up with a bug label. Apologies

LouChiSoft commented 9 months ago

Closing because I have since found the discussions section of the repo (didn't know about them before)