java method calls and GIMPLE

Wed Oct 11 17:12:00 GMT 2006

Ian Lance Taylor writes:
 > Andrew Haley <aph@redhat.com> writes:
 > 
 > > Yes. You'll need to represent virtual function calls at the GIMPLE
 > > level, or to keep track of which calls are associated with which
 > > methods. This is key to getting IPA to work.
 > > 
 > > It should be fairly easy, given a class and a vtable offset, to find
 > > the method. This will require a callback into the front end.
 > 
 > But note that IPA via LTO is not going to permit callbacks into the
 > front end, because there isn't going to be a front end. So the
 > information needs to be represented in GIMPLE somewhere.
I understand, but (IIRC) every time this has come up there has been
some disagreement: I remember it being said that GIMPLE wasn't
supposed to represent abstractions such as virtual methods. I may be
misremembering!
Anyway, a front end callback is surely good enought for a proof of
concept.
Andrew.