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Re: Port to binutils without assembler
- From: Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>
- To: Galit dot Heller at nsc dot com
- Cc: binutils at sources dot redhat dot com
- Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 16:19:23 +0100
- Subject: Re: Port to binutils without assembler
- References: <3F1404F9.3FC87967@nsc.com>
Hi Galit,
> I'm a member of a team at National Semiconductor, which develops
> and supports a development toolset for National Semiconductor's
> CompactRISC CPUs. The compiler, linker and debugger are a gnu based
> port (currently for CR16C).
>
> We are planning to begin the process of submitting the port -
> initially to binutils - and we have a preliminary question:
> can we submit to binutils w/o the assembler ?
This is actually quite a complex question. One the hand, the FSF is
very reluctant to accept any contributions which will make a user
reliant on proprietary software. Their goal is to free software from
ownership and instead put it in the public domain. So although a
binutils linker for the CR16C might be nice, on its own it is not
enough to create a free set of tools for the architecture.
On the other hand, by accepting and making available a free linker,
the binutils project might encourage CompactRISC CPU users to develop
and release a port of GAS as well. Thereby achieving the goal of a
completely free set of binary utilities for the architecture.
> This is because the assembler is currently not ported to gnu.
Does this mean that you do have plans to port GAS to the CompactRISC
architecture ? If so, do you also plan to contribute this port
if/when it is complete ?
> We would be willing to assign the assembler's (proprietary) source
> code to the FSF under GPL, if this were to help.
It would certainly help. With a free assembler, even if it is not
GAS, a programmer would be able to obtain a completely free set of
binary tools for the CR16C, which matches the FSF goals in this area.
So - in conclusion - yes the binutils project would be prepared to
accept a CR16C linker contribution, provided that:
a. The appropriate FSF copyright assignments were made
& b. A free assembler was also available. (This does not have to be
GAS, although that would be nice).
Cheers
Nick Clifton
Binutils Head Maintainer