[Gomp-discuss] RE: OpenMP, HPC, and the future of GCC

[Scott Robert Ladd]

Jan Hubicka wrote
> > Is GNU interested in supporting the HPC community?
>
> I think the question should be reversed.  Is HPC comunity interested in
> supporting GNU?  I don't think anyone working on GCC would not like it
> to be usefull for more people than it is now and generate better code.
> To make this happen, someone must realize it.  GNU can't do it, someone
> who actually needs the feature has to make this happen.

The question is truly bidirectional; it is a matter of cooperation.

HPC receives a lot of help and cooperation from companies with a vested
interest in HPC. My question is: How much cooperation can the HPC community
expect from GCC? If people like me are willing to put in some of the work,
can GCC meet us part-way? Or is the GCC comunity so disinterested in HPC
that any work on our part would be futile?

I'm asking because I don't know the answers.

> This is problematic.  Since GCC maintainers can not implement all the
> HPC support themselves, they can not give in advance an promise that
> they will accept the code.  Every new feature needs to be implemented
> first and then it needs to be judged on how it works, how maintainable
> the code is before it can be accepted for mainline GCC.

As I have said before, I am not looking for GCC to give blanket pre-approval
to anything; Lord knows, that would be stupid. What I *am* asking for is an
open mind -- and several messages in this thread (*not* yours!) suggest
slammed doors.

> I personally would like to see GCC usefull for numeric computing too, so
> I would like to help with the project if it is created as my time
> allows.

And that's exactly what I'm looking for!

..Scott