end of the 'evil mangler' ?

[Simon Marlow]

> Are we ever likely to see the end of the 'evil mangler'?
> With gcc 3.x and it's selection of __atribute__ annotations=20
> (eg noreturn,
> pure, const, naked etc) would we be able to iliminate the need for the
> mangler?

It's not quite there yet.  'naked' looks promising, but the
documentation seems to indicate that it doesn't work on all platforms.
Also, you need to be able to specify the relative layout of code and
data - i.e. layout data in the code section next to a specific chunk of
code.

We have at various times discussed ways to get rid of the mangler, but
all the choices seemt to imply a compromise of one kind or another, on
top of being a significant investment in developer effort.  That's not
to say we won't do it, provided we can settle on a good plan, or that we
wouldn't welcome someone else doing it :-) =20

Cheers,
	Simon