From Stu Sutherland in email on 1 Feb 2003.

 

 

I would like to add an enhancement request for the committee to consider,

however.  This is actually a request from a student in a SystemVerilog

class that I taught last week.  The request is to add a set of backward

compatibility compiler directives to SystemVerilog.  No suggestion was made

as to a name for the directive, but a possibility might be:

 

   `compatibility 1364-1995

   `compatibility 1364-2001

   `compatibility SV-30

   `compatibility SV-31

   `compatibility default

   `endcompatibility

 

The 1364 standard includes some required compiler directives, and some

optional, but recommended directives.  I would see a compatibility modes as

being an optional directive.

 

The Co-design simulator uses file extensions to determine

compatibility.  ".v" files parse as Verilog 1364 code, and SystemVerilog

keywords are legal identifiers.  ".sv" files parse as SystemVerilog codes,

and ".slg" files parse as Superlog code.  The compatibility modes are very

handy, but using file extensions to set them would never be accepted by the

IEEE 1364 committee.