GCC as back end

We are about to write the compiler for the next release of Sather. Our
previous compiler (written for the most part in Sather) used Yacc and Lex,
did some Sather processing, and output in C as a sort of portable
assembly.


Most of the compiling time is currently spent compiling the resultant C
code. Naturally, we are thinking about using RTL as an intermediate form
to hand to gcc. This would result in a much faster compiler that would be
nearly as portable, although we would still have to be able to generate C
in order to let people bootstrap Sather.


RTL (from the gcc manual) isn't too bad, but removing the C-specific part
of gcc and linking in our code looks like it would require a lot of
knowledge of gcc. The new versions of the compiler look much cleaner than
before, but we would rather be spending time on language issues than
mucking with the code.


I would love to hear from anyone who has used gcc as a back-end, or
pointers to other attempts to do so. Ideal would be a stripped down
version which read RTL instead of C files. I imagine such a thing would
be very useful to others as well.


I will appreciate any help... thanks!


        - Dave
[The GNU Fortran project must have faced a similar problem. It's headed up
by Craig Burley <burley@apple-gunkies.gnu.ai.mit.edu>. -John]
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