The OpenMP and OpenACC specifications are also supported in the C and C++ compilers. Front ends were later developed for Objective-C, Objective-C++, Fortran, Ada, D and Go, among others. It was extended to compile C++ in December of that year. When it was first released in 1987 by Richard Stallman, GCC 1.0 was named the GNU C Compiler since it only handled the C programming language. It has played an important role in the growth of free software, as both a tool and an example. With roughly 15 million lines of code in 2019, GCC is one of the biggest free programs in existence. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain and the standard compiler for most projects related to GNU and the Linux kernel. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes GCC as free software under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL). The GNU Compiler Collection ( GCC) is an optimizing compiler produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages, hardware architectures and operating systems. GPLv3+ with GCC Runtime Library Exception
