[GCC-XML] Function bodies

[Brad King]

Daniel J. Lauk wrote:
> Am Freitag, 27. Januar 2006 15:48 schrieb Brad King:
>>It's not that the xml output might be "executable", it's that it might
>>be such a detailed representation of the data structures in GCC itself
>>that using it could be considered "linking" to the GPLed GCC code.
>>Currently this is far from true but adding function bodies makes it closer.
> 
> Brad, you've seen the preliminary version of the output. Do you think it will 
> cause any trouble?

I'm not qualified to answer this legal question, but here is my opinion.

With function bodies contained in the output pretty much all the 
information in the translation unit is available, and the format looks 
alot like GCC's internal representation.  Information beyond that 
available in the original code, such as function overload resolution 
following C++ rules, has been added by GCC's code.  This could be 
considered a linking layer.

Since GCC's code cannot call the user's code through this interface the 
"link" is only in one direction, but I don't know if this helps. 
Someone with legal experience will have to review the GPL.  In the worst 
case someone that uses the output produced with the -fxml-body option 
may be bound by the GPL.

-Brad