Talk:Cfront
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[edit] Cfront isn't a language
No, no, no.
Cfront isn't a language. Cfront was (still is?) a C++ compiler. It was implemented as a pre-processor that converted C++ to C. It was written in C++. (unsigned comment by 137.205.8.4)
- Feel free to dive in and corrent the article itself, anonymous visitor :-) -- Tarquin 11:38 Jan 22, 2003 (UTC)
[edit] written in C++?!
I doubt Cfront was written in C++. How would it have been compiled? (unsigned comment by 164.107.199.102)
- gcc is written in C and compiles itself. Similarly, it is entirely possible that Cfront bootstraps itself. --Yamla 16:31, 2005 Mar 30 (UTC)
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- The article claims it was the first C++ compiler therefore if it was initially written in C++ it could not have been compiled. I'd guess the very first versions were written in C and then changed to C++ as soon as cfront became usable. Plugwash 00:08, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
As I understand, a super simple preprocessor converted the first c++ into c. CFront was then written using that preprocessor.70.71.145.81 04:52, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
- Wait, then why not just use the original simple preprocessor, rather than write cfront? lol Family Guy Guy (talk) 01:55, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
The cfront compiler commonly available in 1991 was written in C, and the source code was freely available for download. It was promoted as an interim solution until the arrival of native C++ compilers, which always seemed to be delayed for one reason or another. There may have been multiple versions of cfront. In contrast to some statements in the article, I recall that there was no widely reputable and reliable native C++ compiler until 1992 or 1993 (but that may only have been the understanding in my little corner of the world). I recall that SGI came out with a decent native compiler for their MIPS machines in about 1993, as did others, and all of them went through bug-fixing updates for awhile.
Problems related to name mangling were an ongoing source of aggravation, and objectionable oddities were constantly popping up (for example, it was discovered that data was stored in C "struct", which meant that the data location was discoverable and the data accessible outside of its class, a problem that was fixed in a later update).
The cfront commonly used in academia and non-commercial research may have been given to the public domain (meaning that anyone could do anything to it and call it their own). A cfront was offered to our group in 1992, with heavy promotion. A comparison with our own version, using a "diff" on every file, showed that the only difference was a comment statement inserted into one of the files of the promoted version.
24.178.228.14 (talk) 16:59, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Availibility
Is cfront freely available on the net? (unsigned comment by 64.40.48.243)
[edit] the first widely-used language which required link-time type checking
...if you exclude pascal and all other languages which required link-time type checking...150.101.166.15 (talk) 05:44, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
