Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!yale!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!mailrus!umix!oxtrap!sendai!rich
From: rich@sendai.UUCP (K. Richard Magill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: gcc on 3b1
Message-ID: <182@sendai.UUCP>
Date: 25 Mar 88 21:01:53 GMT
Reply-To: rich@sendai.UUCP
Organization: Digital Works Ltd, Ann Arbor
Lines: 35

This deserves a little discussion.  gcc HAS been ported to 3b1 BUT...

It will be a LONG time before it is a replacement for the development
set.  First, gcc doesn't know COFF.  gcc produces assembler which you
must be assembled.  Second, gcc comes with only runtime libraries.
That is, only the libraries needed to make code produced with gcc run.
This is fine for prom development, or if you have your own kernel and
section 3, or if you're willing to use the devo set libraries.

gcc is basically ansii.  This means the old pcc bugs and quirks that
most of us vets are used to are no longer there.  Instead, ansii (more
or less) replaces lint but introduces an entirely new set of quirks.

Finally, while I support the GNU project whole-heartedly, (morally and
financially, although seldom time wise), they don't really "care", as
it were, about 3b1's.  Meaning even the compiler bugs are YOUR problem
if you use it.

Pratically, 3b1 diffs have not yet made it into the gcc standard
release.  The gnu folks seem to work with vaxen and suns.  This means
that any 3b1 support distributed by FSF will probably lag 1-3 releases
behind the "standard" gcc since the primary thrust is 68020.  68010
code generation is considerably less tested than 68020 and SysV (or
SysV-esque environs like 3b1) are hostile territory to much of gnu.

If you want good tools, get bison, get gawk, get gnu make, get emacs.
These all work beautifully on 3b1.  (also get pdtar).

xoxorich.

ps, I use gnu-emacs constantly on all machines I work on.  I use
bison/gcc/gnu-make/gdb as my primary devo tool on sun3's.  Think of
emacs, bison, and gdb as production quality with gcc coming up
quickly.  g++, make, gnu-ld, are really in pretty early stages of
development.  I haven't used gas enough to judge.