Re: assignment forms

[Mark Byler <mbyler at maplenet dot net>]

Michael Snyder wrote:
> 
> Mark Byler wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am looking into contributing to gdb sources.  Your
> > "Contributing to GDB" page talks about some documents like
> > http://gcc.gnu.org/fsf-forms/assignment-instructions.html,
> > but this page does not exist.
> >
> > Is the copyright assignment really the first step?  Should
> > I talk to somebody about the kind of changes I want to
> > contribute?
> 
> The copyright assignment is an essential step, but not necessarily
> the first.  Jim Blandy (jimb@redhat.com) is your contact for the
> copyright forms.  If you'd like to discuss the changes you're
> contemplating and look for feedback, this is an appropriate forum.
> What did you have in mind?
> 
> Michael

I work with Kuck & Associates (KAI C++ compiler people)
who recently were bought by Intel.  KAI would like to make gdb
the principal debugger for use with KAI C++, dropping an
in-house debugger.

KAI C++ uses an EDG front end.  The changes we need are related
to EDG style of compilation, which probably has broader application
than just KAI C++.  Specifically, we need
	- local variable demangling is slightly different, this
		is about a 20-line change in libiberty/cplus-dem.c
	- C++ baseclasses are represented differently, especially
		virtual baseclasses.
	- Digital alpha (aka axp/osf, tru64) does not know anything
		about baseclasses at all, as far as I can tell
	- might be some changes related to finding methods for classes

This is not a complete list, but this is the sort of thing
we are looking at.  We would like to plow these changes back into
the general source of gdb.  On some platforms we might be interested
in fixing some bugs.  We might help get some ports done (I have a
question out about 64-bit sparc).

What do you think?  Is this worth pursuing?

Mark.