[Sdcc-user] sdcc, the upcoming release and the path ahead - questions and suggestions from a user

[Philipp K. K. <pk...@sp...>]

I've been using sdcc for some years now, mainly the now very active
PIC14 port and the not so active Z80 port.

I think the most important thing about library licensing is compability
with the GPL. Compability with other major FOSS licenses is nice, too.
If (L)GPL is chosen please use version 2 with the "either version 2 of
the License, or (at your option) any later version." clause. That way
both the people that prefer GPL 2 and those that prefer the
controversial GPL 3 can compile their software with sdcc.

sdcc's main purpose is to create binaries from valid (that is standard C
minus the exceptions mentioned in the manual) C source. Binaries that
behave as specified in the C file. That means that bugs where sdcc
crashes on valid input or creates binaries that behave wrong are amongst
the worst bugs. Please consider having a look at all the bugs of those
two types before the release.

My last point is probably irrelevant for the upcoming release: There is
still some important functionality missing in sdcc. Both ANSI C and C99
support is still incomplete. There has been someone on the mailing list
some time ago who wanted to complete C99 support or add a C++ frontend
or add a basic front end to the compiler. I'd prefer the complete C99
support. He was looking for a developer to sponsor him for a google
summer of code project. What happened to him?

Thanks to all sdcc developers for giving the world a free C compiler
targeting small processors.

Philipp