Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2003 13:34:21 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Cliff Sarginson <clsn@raggedclown.net> Cc: FreeBSD Chat <FreeBSD-chat@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: In the land of the blind a one eyed man becomes king Message-ID: <3E17535D.15E80093@mindspring.com> References: <200212312041.gBVKfr183480@hokkshideh2.jetcafe.org> <3E120659.3D60EB30@mindspring.com> <20030101140530.GA11468@raggedclown.net> <4.3.2.7.2.20030104112345.02a48b70@localhost> <20030104201542.GA10588@raggedclown.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Cliff Sarginson wrote: > > >RMS' great contribution in this regard is *not* the compiler > > >itself; what he contributed there is actually a mediocre set > > >of code, that other people then worked on to turn it into what > > >it is today. In fact, he had to eat crow on EGCS to get it to > > >be only a version successor to GCC, rather than a competing > > >project. So RMS's contribution was the project, itself: the > > >difficulty of writing a compiler is actually irrelevent to the > > >discussion. > > No it is not. > Write one, display the code, tell us it will compile anything written in > "C". OK, let me correct my statement: the difficulty of writing a compiler is actually irrelevent to the discussion for any trained computer scientist. It's trivial to take one of the ANSI C lex and yacc grammars, and hook the terminals into a quad tree data structure and a symbol table data structure, and then to generate code from the resulting data dictionary, for a particular processor. Most CS student who have a bachelor's degree have done this exercise; if not for the whole ANSI C language grammar, then for a subset with modifications, chosen by the instructor to discourage copying, or encourage his ideas of "goto"-less naguages, etc.. My own experience in this case was in 1983 in a class called "Compiler Design" at Weber State Univerity, in Utah, and the target assembly language was an assembler based on "ToyCode", for which we had to have previously written both the assembler, and a virtual machine to run the resulting code, in VAX 11 Assembly language. And if you can read a TK-50, I still have the source code, which I can share, if absolutely necessary. > > Also true. It's amazing how often one hears RMS described as > > a master coder, when in fact the original GCC was awful. > > I have never seen RMS described so, > He was just someone with an idea. No. He wrote code to implement it. A mere idea does not an Open Source project make. Consider all the failed crap on SourceForge and similar "companies", which attempt to be a means of creating cookie-cutter Open Source Software projects, based on the erroneous assumption that, in order to create an Open Source Software project, one needs merely to declare it. RMS understood that code was necessary, but it's not sufficient, and he was groping his way blindly. It's probably why he has such sour grapes when it comes to Linux: RMS declared "GNU", and no one came to help him build the house. The corporate world still doesn't understand Open Source, either, and companies like Source Forge are artifacts of their non-understanding, I think. The history of Mozilla is a shining example of fumbling in the dark after declaring a project, and finding that you have shot your foot off many times over by the time your find the cave exit. I would venture to say that the browsers based on the Mozilla code, Galeon, Konquerer, etc., are significantly more "alive" than Mozilla itself. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3E17535D.15E80093>