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7.3. The GNU Compiler CollectionIf you are going to write a UNIX-like operating system, and one that is "Free" (certainly free of anyone else's intellectual property which might be restricted from the Free Software point of view), the first thing you need is a C compiler. Thus, a great deal of early effort by the FSF went into developing what was originally called the GNU C Compiler, or gcc. Once they had a C compiler, some people began to write hundreds of utilities from ls to grep, while others began work on HURD, a microkernel for GNU. That work continues to this day. The bulk of the system commands you use on Linux were in fact developed by the FSF as part of the GNU project. This is why Stallman et al. want us all to refer to "GNU/Linux" rather than "Linux".[5] An understandable, if unenforceable, position.
It wasn't long before an effort began to integrate C++ into gcc. As time progressed, support for more and more languages and for more and more architectures[6] was being added. At some point, it was decided to rename (reacronym?) gcc to mean "GNU Compiler Collection."
Not too surprisingly, as Java emerged and gained popularity, it became one of the languages supported by the GCC using a front end called gcj.[7] That is what we'll be talking about here.
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