GCC needs YOU!

[Manuel López-Ibáñez]

Dear GCC users,

As you may have noticed, GCC diagnostics have steadily improved in
recent releases. In addition to the myriad of bugs fixed per release,
every release had at least one major improvement in diagnostics.

Unfortunately, the number of people contributing to this effort is
very limited and we are more and more busy with other obligations. We
need new blood and we need help. It has never been easier to
contribute to GCC than nowadays. There are many ways you can help and
there are tasks for every level of skill and time commitment.

Some examples are:

* There are 610 open bugs with the diagnostic keyword
(https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?keywords=diagnostic&limit=0&list_id=99232&order=bug_status%2Cpriority%2Cassigned_to%2Cbug_id&query_format=advanced&resolution=---)

Many are easy to implement and there is a description of the strategy
available (https://gcc.gnu.org/PR49859, https://gcc.gnu.org/PR19808,
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR48956,
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR59717,https://gcc.gnu.org/PR43113
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR38612 https://gcc.gnu.orgPR17896
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR49973 https://gcc.gnu.org/PR53920 and many more
like those)

Many of them require further analysis. That means run GCC under GDB
and figure out what went wrong. Just doing that would be extremely
helpful.

Other bigger projects are not technically difficult, just longer than
a few hours:

* Replace libiberty with gnulib. See
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2012-08/msg00362.html

* Add a "spell-checker" (https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2010-04/msg00104.html)
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR52959 https://gcc.gnu.org/PR52277

* Investigate the open bugs in the macro unwinder
(https://gcc.gnu.org/PR52998 https://gcc.gnu.org/PR55252
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR45333 https://gcc.gnu.org/PR60014)

* C++ preprocessor ignores #pragma GCC diagnostic
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=53431

If you are into Fortran, it would be extremely helpful to contribute
to fix this one:

* https://gcc.gnu.org/PR54687 which is not only easy and incremental
but consists mostly in deleting code and testing.

Of course, if you are brave and a real hacker, you can always tackle
some of the heavy stuff that no GCC hacker has figured out how to fix
yet:

* https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18501 (and basically
anything mentioned here:
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=24639)

* https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=60090

* And any of the points here: https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/Better_Diagnostics

We need your help to make GCC better and keep it relevant!

Thanks,

Manuel.

[Ali Abdul Ghani]

gcc Became very bad
gcc Became the slower and more errors
Because WeChange Implementation to c++
I hope to return to c Implementation

Post by Manuel López-Ibáñez
Dear GCC users,
As you may have noticed, GCC diagnostics have steadily improved in
recent releases. In addition to the myriad of bugs fixed per release,
every release had at least one major improvement in diagnostics.
Unfortunately, the number of people contributing to this effort is
very limited and we are more and more busy with other obligations. We
need new blood and we need help. It has never been easier to
contribute to GCC than nowadays. There are many ways you can help and
there are tasks for every level of skill and time commitment.
* There are 610 open bugs with the diagnostic keyword
(https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?keywords=diagnostic&limit=0&list_id=99232&order=bug_status%2Cpriority%2Cassigned_to%2Cbug_id&query_format=advanced&resolution=---)
Many are easy to implement and there is a description of the strategy
available (https://gcc.gnu.org/PR49859, https://gcc.gnu.org/PR19808,
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR48956,
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR59717,https://gcc.gnu.org/PR43113
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR38612 https://gcc.gnu.orgPR17896
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR49973 https://gcc.gnu.org/PR53920 and many more
like those)
Many of them require further analysis. That means run GCC under GDB
and figure out what went wrong. Just doing that would be extremely
helpful.
Other bigger projects are not technically difficult, just longer than
* Replace libiberty with gnulib. See
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2012-08/msg00362.html
* Add a "spell-checker" (https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2010-04/msg00104.html)
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR52959 https://gcc.gnu.org/PR52277
* Investigate the open bugs in the macro unwinder
(https://gcc.gnu.org/PR52998 https://gcc.gnu.org/PR55252
https://gcc.gnu.org/PR45333 https://gcc.gnu.org/PR60014)
* C++ preprocessor ignores #pragma GCC diagnostic
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=53431
If you are into Fortran, it would be extremely helpful to contribute
* https://gcc.gnu.org/PR54687 which is not only easy and incremental
but consists mostly in deleting code and testing.
Of course, if you are brave and a real hacker, you can always tackle
some of the heavy stuff that no GCC hacker has figured out how to fix
* https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18501 (and basically
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=24639)
* https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=60090
* And any of the points here: https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/Better_Diagnostics
We need your help to make GCC better and keep it relevant!
Thanks,
Manuel.

[Manuel López-Ibáñez]

Dear all,

I have received quite a few private messages about how to start
contributing and where.

I understand that some people might be too shy (or not wish to raise
false expectations) to write even a private message. Thus, my overall
advice is to follow these 10 steps:

https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/GettingStarted#Basics:_Contributing_to_GCC_in_10_easy_steps

and to check this list of easy tasks: https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/EasyHacks

and not be shy! Expressing interest is not a promise of commitment. If
you start something and you cannot finish it, well, that's life. At
least you tried.

I would encourage you to write to the mailing list (gcc@) or use IRC
(https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/GCConIRC), but I don't mind if you write me
a private message (although I may take a few days to reply).

Cheers,

Manuel.