Path: utzoo!telly!ddsw1!lll-winken!uunet!labrea!polya!ham
From: ham@polya.Stanford.EDU (Peter R. Ham)
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc.bug
Subject: Future of gcc in terms of threads and shared libraries
Message-ID: <HAM.89Jan23194625@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 24 Jan 89 03:46:25 GMT
Sender: ham@polya.Stanford.EDU
Distribution: gnu
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 33


	At the Distributed Systems Group, we are working to extend 
gcc to accept a new keyword "shared" to distinguish global data
that is shared among light weight process in a task rather than private
to a single thread.  I hear that Sequent has a similar feature in one
of their proprietary compilers.

	I would like to solicit some comments and ideas about what the
right way to add this to gcc is.  Right now, I have added the new keyword
and taught gcc how to generate different types of global reference for
the memory architecture we are using here.  Now, I'm modifying gas to 
reflect a new a.out format for this new feature.  Next, I will be tackling the
linker.  I would also like my changes to be of sufficient quality to migrate
their way back into the released gcc proper.

	Is anyone else working on similar light weight process issues with
gcc?

	After this project, our operating system, the V system,
 will try and tackle shared libraries?  Anyone working on the compiler issues
relating to this?  Does gcc fit into the shared library architecture of
the new version of SunOS?  Anyone plan to extend gcc to also produce
position independent code?

	I would appreciate any comments.  I would like to cooperate with
others and I don't want to duplicate any work.

Peter

--
Peter Ham			PO Box 3430	(415) 321-5746
MS Computer Science Student	Stanford, CA	ham@polya.stanford.edu
Stanford University 		94309