Hello, everyone! Some of you might still remember me. From about 1995 to 2001 I was the main GPC developer who implemented BP-style units, objects, and other things. I am still hosting the GPC web pages, this mailing list, etc. In 1998 I started my own company (G-N-U GmbH, http://www.g-n-u.de) doing business on free software. Our product range includes professional service for GNU Pascal, developing and customizing free software, and other services. For a while, GNU Pascal was a very important tool for my company, which justified that I invested a lot of time and money into it. However, over the years more and more customers addressed me with other needs. Meanwhile, GNU Pascal has reached a point where it needs full-time attention by an experienced GPC developer for several months. 1. The GCC backend is drifting away. Even if we just want to keep the existing language alive, without aiming at extensions, we need to transplant it onto a new, long-time stable backend. 2. It is very difficult for GPC enthusiasts to join the development team, since GPC is written in C rather than Pascal. Realistically, only Waldek, Frank, and/or myself can replace the GPC backend or rewrite the GPC frontend in Pascal without breaking the compiler. However all three of us face the necessity to make a living and thus cannot afford to do that large amount of work just for fun. It needs to be funded. I suggest to concentrate our forces on problem 2 and to rewrite the GPC frontend in Pascal without any backend. This gives you, Pascal programmers using GPC, the opportunity to watch the emerging new compiler and to become a GPC developer. Once this step is completed and the new compiler can represent a Pascal program in memory, the (hopefully enlarged) GPC development team has a free choice which backend(s?) to implement. If GNU Pascal is important for you, please consider to invest into its future by funding our work on GPC. You can contact me either on this list or in private email. Encrypted mail is welcome. Please find my public key at: http://www.peter.gerwinski.de/peter-gerwinski.public-key.asc Greetings, Peter -- Dr. rer. nat. Peter Gerwinski - http://www.peter.gerwinski.de G-N-U GmbH - First Class IT Services - http://www.g-n-u.de German pages for GNU & free software - http://www.gnu.de GNU Pascal - http://www.gnu-pascal.de