Path: utzoo!telly!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rpi!sun.soe.clarkson.edu!nelson From: nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) Newsgroups: gnu.gcc Subject: Apologia for gcc's bugs Message-ID: Date: 8 Jun 89 14:06:17 GMT References: <2129@internal.Apple.COM> <1107@mailrus.cc.umich.edu> <6862@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> Sender: news@sun.soe.clarkson.edu Reply-To: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu Organization: Clarkson University, Postdam NY Lines: 31 In-reply-to: spaf@cs.purdue.edu's message of 1 Jun 89 03:22:24 GMT In article <6862@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) writes: ... Well, ignoring the fact that it's still in Beta test after months and months and months, and updates (and new bugs) just keep coming, there is problem of the copyleft. ... Gene, I just *have* to pick a nit here. I don't really believe that you mean to bash gcc. But lest others think less of gcc: Gcc runs on a vast array of machines, produces code for a vast array of architectures, and has one of (if not) the best optimizers. It has bugs. They get reported to the list. You can find out what the bugs are. They get fixed. Borland's Turbo C compiler runs on one OS, and produces code for two very similar architectures (8088 & 80188). It has bugs. They don't get reported to anyone. If you find a bug, Borland will confirm that it is a bug. Borland will *NOT* give you a bug list. The bugs get fixed if they are in the library or if they are patchable. Otherwise you get to wait for the next version. And Borland is one of (if not) the most progressive compiler vendors. (I'm not picking on them in particular -- in fact it's the only MS-LOSS C compiler that I will use.) In short, if you don't like to deal with bugs, don't use software that is in beta test. The length of the beta test is only known because of the public nature of the software. -- --russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) I'm a right-to-lifer -- everyone has a right to earn a living sufficient to feed himself and his family.