From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 9296 invoked by alias); 19 Jan 2004 17:41:41 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gcc-help@gcc.gnu.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: Sender: gcc-owner@gcc.gnu.org Received: (qmail 9265 invoked from network); 19 Jan 2004 17:41:39 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO nile.gnat.com) (205.232.38.5) by sources.redhat.com with SMTP; 19 Jan 2004 17:41:39 -0000 Received: from gnat.com (ppp1.gnat.com [205.232.38.211]) by nile.gnat.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C080BF29F2; Mon, 19 Jan 2004 12:41:33 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <400C16CE.6060000@gnat.com> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 17:41:00 -0000 From: Robert Dewar User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Scott Robert Ladd Cc: Gabriel Dos Reis , Nick Burrett , Marc Espie , geoffk@apple.com, gcc@gcc.gnu.org Subject: Re: gcc 3.5 integration branch proposal References: <90200277-4301-11D8-BDBD-000A95B1F520@apple.com> <20040110002526.GA13568@disaster.jaj.com> <82D6F34E-4306-11D8-BDBD-000A95B1F520@apple.com> <20040110154129.GA28152@disaster.jaj.com> <1073935323.3458.42.camel@minax.codesourcery.com> <1073951351.3458.162.camel@minax.codesourcery.com> <20040119013113.044D74895@quatramaran.ens.fr> <400BB40B.4070101@dsvr.net> <400BE1D3.7010105@gnat.com> <400C00DF.5050006@coyotegulch.com> In-Reply-To: <400C00DF.5050006@coyotegulch.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-SW-Source: 2004-01/txt/msg01308.txt.bz2 Scott Robert Ladd wrote: > Define a "lean-and-mean" build, perhaps focused on C, that reduces > system requirements and focuses on compilation speed. One of GCC's key > advantages is its support for "older" hardware. I do not agree that it is a particular advantage (let alone a key advantage) for gcc to be able to be hosted on "older" hardware. It is indeed valuable to be able to generate code for older hardware. Certainly for example, people are going to be using 68020 processors in embedded applications for a long time, but I don't particularly see it as useful to be able to run latest versions of GCC on old 68020 based macs. The excellent support for cross-compilation on the other hand does seem a key advantage, and that is what makes it practical to target older machines.