[bitc-dev] why the switch to c++?

[Aleksi Nurmi]

2009/2/11 Jonathan S. Shapiro <shap at eros-os.com>:
> The main things that we need in order to self-host the BitC compiler are:
>
> 1. An interface module for the libicu components that we rely on.

Unless I'm mistaken, it seems that currently only two functions and
two constants are used. If this is indeed the case, something as
trivial as

(interface icu.uchar
  ; defunion?
  (define XID_CONTINUE 32)
  (define XID_START 33)
  ; assuming int32 is equivalent to C enum...
  (proclaim hasBinaryProperty: (fn char int32 -> int8) external
u_hasBinaryProperty)
  (proclaim isgraph: (fn char -> int8) external u_isgraph)
)

might be enough?

In addition, the compiler may need to interface with some POSIX routines.

Aleksi Nurmi