[Pnet-developers] Using cscc to comple C

[John Goerzen]

Hello,

In my opinion, one of the most interesting features of cscc is the 
ability to compile C source code.  This opens up some itneresting ways 
to provide greater portability for existing code.  One thing I'm 
interested in is rescue CDs[1] for Debian.  By compiling large 
applications to CLR bytecode, it may be possible to make a truly 
multi-architecture rescue CD by including native versions of core 
programs and bytecode versions of other programs.  (The DFS CD is not 
your typical rescue CD; it's a tool to build a full-fledged CD 
environment based on your current kernel and modules.)  I realize this 
may never be possible, but there are other interesting possibilities 
too.

I decided to do some testing on cscc's C compilation abilities.  I was 
able to compile and run a small Hello, World application.  (Note: if I 
use printf() with only a format string and no additional args, the 
resulting application cannot run with Mono but still runs with pnet.)

Next, I thought I would see how cscc fares with some common applications 
that are known to be portable.  I obtained a number of common GNU (and 
a few other) programs, some of which are portable not just across Unix 
but also to Windows and DOS.  Not one of them compiled with cscc, and 
two of them even caused a segfault.  The programs I tested were: sed 
wget bash gzip bzip2 coreutils textutils dash.  I did discover one 
actual bug in the source code, where a prototype conflicted with the 
actual implementation of the function.

I also tried the C++ front-end, and it was not even able to compile a 
minimal program due to passing -J to cscc-cpp, which it did not 
support.

Here's my question: are you interested in fixing these issues?  If so, 
would it be best for me to submit bugs with as many details as possible 
on the problems?  I'm not very good with compilers or .NET yet, but I 
am knowledgable about C, and would be willing to help out wherever I 
can.

Thanks,
John

[1] http://people.debian.org/~jgoerzen/dfs/