Why use GNU Modula-2 (The GNU Modula-2 Compiler)

### 1.2 Why use GNU Modula-2 ¶

There are a number of advantages of using GNU Modula-2 rather than translate an existing project into another language.

The first advantage is of maintainability of the original sources and the ability to debug the original project source code using a combination of gm2 and gdb.

The second advantage is that gcc runs on many processors and platforms. gm2 builds and runs on powerpc64le, amd64, i386, aarch64 to name but a few processors.

gm2 can produce swig interface headers to allow access from Python and other scripting languages. It can also be used with C/C++ and generate shared libraries.

The compiler provides semantic analysis and run time checking (full ISO Modula-2 checking is implemented) and there is a plugin which can, under certain conditions, detect run time errors at compile time.

The compiler supports PIM2, PIM3, PIM4 and ISO dialects of Modula-2, work is underway to implement M2R10. Many of the GCC builtins are available and access to assembly programming is achieved using the same syntax as that used by GCC.

The gm2 driver allows third party libraries to be installed alongside gm2 libraries. See Module Search Path.