> Let me also size this post to ask something else:  Would it be OK to  
> add a C++ host tool to the tools or would this be too painful?  (I  
> see that there is already support to build C++ host tools, so it  
> doesn't seem like a too strange thing.)

C++ support is (still) too unpredictable on random hosts; I'd strongly
discourage any such tools in tools/.