[LLVMdev] Summer of Code ideas

[Chris Lattner]

On Mar 22, 2010, at 1:27 PM, Charles Davis wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I intend to participate in Google's Summer of Code this year, so I'd
> like to bounce another idea around to see what you guys think. (I posted
> a similar message to cfe-dev just now.) Be warned: this will shock you.
> It may even horrify you.
> 
> 1. Implement a 16-bit x86 backend. (*Chris recoils in horror*) Yeah, I

/me recoils.

> know 16-bit x86 is dead, but I find it interesting for historical
> purposes (and also because the Wine project wants a 16-bit compiler to
> make 16-bit regression tests :). Besides, then we can have a 16-bit
> assembler, and we won't need GAS anymore to build boot loaders and the like.

I'd really rather not do this.  There is a high maintenance cost to having backends in the tree (every codegen change requires updating all backends).  Adding stuff that noone uses and can barely test is not goodness.

-Chris