A (potentially) silly idea

[Tom Frauenhofer]

For those who subscribe to the gnu.* heirarch (particularly gnu.gcc), there
has been a discussion recently about building a version of gcc to support
the 80286.  The GNU people have mentioned some reasons why this probably
cannot work, but they also mentioned something about Sozobon C.

Sozobon C is a C compiler that runs on the Atari ST and the Amiga,
generating 68000 assembly code.  It is supposedly a full K&R C compiler with
structs, enums, all the good stuff.

I have the source for both the Atari and Amiga versions.  There would be
some work required to port the sucker, but it does look doable.  Things I
would like the compiler to do include:

- generate either large or huge memory model code (small model could also be
  accomodated, I guess, but that is not a high priority for me)
- int would be a 4-bit type (think of the code that could be ported more
  easily to our systems if this was the default)

We could get it to generate output for 'as' to consume and generate .o files.

Is this a silly idea?  Would others like to work on such a project, or
should I instead spend my time on useful projects?

Thanks.

Thomas V. Frauenhofer	...!rutgers!rochester!cci632!ccird7!tvf *or*
...!attctc!swamps!frau!tvf (tvf at frau, tvf at cci632)	Daffy Duck Sings:
"I once knew an acrobat's daughter who swung by her teeth from a noose. 'Til
one day her bridgework gave way, and she flew through the air like a Goose!"