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From: Matthew_Self@NEXT.COM
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc
Subject: Objective-C front end for GCC from NeXT
Message-ID: <8909210104.AA14825@batcomputer.NeXT.COM>
Date: 21 Sep 89 01:01:50 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
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In response to Steve Simmons' inquiry about an Objective-C
front-end for GCC, NeXT will be making our modifications to
GCC for Objective-C available very soon.

Once GCC-1.36 is released (any day now), I will create a patch
kit which will be announced on this mailing list.  (The modifications
are very small.)

Whether and when this Objective-C support will be merged into
the GCC release is, of course, up to Richard Stallman.  The main
issue which must be resolved before this is likely to occur is how
to provide a run-time system for Objective-C.  (The NeXT run-time
system is not compatible with StepStone's run-time system.)

NeXT hopes to distribute its Objective-C run-time system through
the FSF, but some small modifications must be made first.  The
system currently relies on special features of the Mach-O object
file format used on the NeXT computer.  The run-time system will
be distributed without restrictions on its use, so Objective-C
programs can be freely linked with our run-time system.


	-- Matthew Self