On Tue, Feb 05, 2008 at 02:00:55PM -0500, der Mouse wrote:
> >>> The major problem is C++ frontends.
> >> What do we have that needs C++?
> > In base? groff is the biggest issue, because it's big and messy and
> > sane people don't want to go near it.
>
> :-) Is there a publicly available spec for the *roff language? I'd
> like to have a look and at least consider building an implementation in
> C. (When I find my code in tones of trouble, / Friends and colleagues
> come to me, / Speaking words of wisdom: "Write in C".)
ditroff is available under CDDL. The older roff from 32V is under BSD
license. The former needs around a third of the time for gcc(1).
> > Convincing the world to migrate onward from C++ is an option too, in
> > the long run, but that requires first inventing a credible migration
> > path.
>
> Moving our C++ compiler to pkgsrc might provide a little incentive....
It moves a hard to to maintain piece to a place where even less hands
are present. Sounds like a good idea.
Joerg