[DotGNU]New type system for Portable.NET's C compiler

[Rhys Weatherley]

Hi all,

The new C compiler type system has been checked in. Type layout is now totally 
dynamic; the IL binary will automatically adapt itself to the runtime engine 
it is running on. This means that DotGNU is bringing true "write once, run 
anywhere" functionality to C, running on top of standard CLR implementations. 
Unlike Microsoft's C compiler, whose output will only run on i386-based 
Windows systems, ours will run portable ANSI C code on any platform that has 
a CLR, be it 32-bit or 64-bit, little-endian or big.

Simple examples of C programs can be compiled to IL now, and volunteers are 
needed to work on the standard C library so that more programs and libraries 
can be compiled. Our eventual goal is to bring a large body of Free Software 
libraries and programs to the CLI environment, vastly increasing the range of 
functionality beyond the small number of libraries currently defined for C#. 

The new C compiler is currently in CVS, and will also be part of the 0.6.4 
release which is upcoming in a few days.  You can find out more about the C 
compiler in the Portable.NET tools documentation on my Web site:

    http://www.southern-storm.com.au/docs/pnettools.html

Cheers,

Rhys.