21.5 Machine Model

This items pertain to generalizing g77's view of the machine model to more fully accept whatever the GBE provides it via its configuration.

• Switch to using REAL_VALUE_TYPE to represent floating-point constants exclusively so the target float format need not be required. This means changing the way g77 handles initialization of aggregate areas having more than one type, such as REAL and INTEGER, because currently it initializes them as if they were arrays of char and uses the bit patterns of the constants of the various types in them to determine what to stuff in elements of the arrays.

• Rely more and more on back-end info and capabilities, especially in the area of constants (where having the g77 front-end's IL just store the appropriate tree nodes containing constants might be best).

• Suite of C and Fortran programs that a user/administrator can run on a machine to help determine the configuration for g77 before building and help determine if the compiler works (especially with whatever libraries are installed) after building.