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Clang and LLVM could have been a GCC project instead, but Stallman decided against it. Also, the reason you could only get the AST as a XML dump was because of
by X-Istence 11y ago
Clang and LLVM could have been a GCC project instead, but Stallman decided against it.
Also, the reason you could only get the AST as a XML dump was because of the same shortsighted mindset.
- vetinari 11y agoStallman also had a reason for that. If he wouldn't insist on respecting GPL for GCC, there would be no GPL licensed Objective-C compiler, because Jobs would simply never free-source it.
- X-Istence 11y agoExcept that clang is free, under a completely open license, which completely and utterly negates your second sentence.
- rayiner 11y agoSwift was unfree until recently. That couldn't have happened with GCC.
- netheril96 11y agoSwift probably would never exist, much less free, if LLVM were not a thing and GCC were the only choice.
- vetinari 11y agoExcept that at the time Jobs fought FSF, so he wouldn't need to open the ObjC sources. He lost that fight. It's called knowing history. Just because two decades later Apple decided to fund open-licensed clang does not negate my second sentence. Clang was no longer considered competitive advantage, like ObjC was at the beginning of 90s.