Resuming the great cleanup

[Ian Bruene]

On 05/27/2018 11:31 AM, Eric S. Raymond via devel wrote:
> * GOPREP: Clear the path to moving the codebase to Go. We haven't committed
> to doing this yet, but the odds on that happening someday look high enough
> that I think it is good to already be factoring it into our planning.

Though it is known to some I have not mentioned this publicly until now; 
the De-globalization / Structification project's goal is to make the 
codebase easier to port over to Go if the time comes. The project has 
spawned a check of when variables are getting initialized, which also 
helps with GOPREP.

> 4. Returning to code simplification, every simplification helps with
> GOPREP.  This one more so than most because it will dramatically
> reduce the spread of platform-dependent code paths we have to map to
> Go if and when it comes time to do that.
[...]

> Reasons for GOPREP:
>
> Go means (1) no more buffer-overrun attacks, ever, (2) no more memory-leak
> issues, ever, (3) *vast* code simplification (LOC might easily drop 50%), (4)
> greatly improved maintainability of what remains.

There is also a benefit in that by cutting out lots of easy-to-screw-up 
C boilerplate code it dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for new 
developers to come in without being in terror of breaking something.

> GOPREP:  Aside from the considerable labor of code translation, there is
> only one problem blocking a move to Go.  That is how GC stop-the-world
> pauses might stall refclock reports.

[...]

> = DEPENDENCIES =
>
> The logical order to do these things in is: SINGLESOCK first.  Then
> EVENTS, if we choose to do it.  Then NTS.  GOPREP isn't a task to be
> scheduled (at least not yet) but a set of issues to keep an eye on.

Fortunately most (all?) of what GOPREP needs before the translation 
proper begins is a win even if GOMOVE never happens.


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