what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Jonathan Wilson]

I see lots of references to some targets being the "primary targets" (which 
I assume means that those backends are the ones the GCC folk consider the 
most important) but which targets are these?

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Paolo Carlini]

Hi,

> I see lots of references to some targets being the "primary targets" 
> (which I assume means that those backends are the ones the GCC folk 
> consider the most important) but which targets are these?

indeed, this is a good question.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it looks like we don't have anymore (easily 
reachable, at least) something similar to:

    
http://web.archive.org/web/20010203180300/gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.0/criteria.html

In any case,

    http://gcc.gnu.org/testing/
   
mentions "the primary evaluation platforms listed in the current release 
criteria"...

Gerald?

Paolo.

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Paolo Carlini]

Paolo Carlini wrote:

> Maybe I'm wrong, but it looks like we don't have anymore (easily 
> reachable, at least) something similar to:
>
>    
> http://web.archive.org/web/20010203180300/gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.0/criteria.html

The best I can find is

    http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/criteria.html

but, frankly, being a draft, I don't know how much trustworthy and 
official is the info in it...

Paolo.

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Steven Bosscher]

On Dec 02, 2004 01:25 PM, Jonathan Wilson <jonwil@tpgi.com.au> wrote:

> I see lots of references to some targets being the "primary targets" (which 
> I assume means that those backends are the ones the GCC folk consider the 
> most important) but which targets are these?

That depends from release to release.  For GCC 3.4 you can find the
list on http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/criteria.html under the header
"Platform Support".  Same for GCC 3.3 and earlier.

(Interesting nit: The criteria for GCC 3.4 are still only a draft
according to that page ;-)).

There are no documented GCC 4.0.0 Release Criteria yet, and I don't
know who is responsible for proposing the criteria and approving them.
Until somebody proposes something I suppose the "primary targets" are
just those which are the most important historically or from the point
of view of the majority of the contributors (x86*-linux, MIPS, HPPA,
powerpc*, HPPA, maybe Alpha, maybe ARM, at least one *BSD target, ...).

Gr.
Steven

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Giovanni Bajo]

Steven Bosscher <stevenb@suse.de> wrote:

>> I see lots of references to some targets being the "primary targets"
(which
>> I assume means that those backends are the ones the GCC folk consider the
>> most important) but which targets are these?

> There are no documented GCC 4.0.0 Release Criteria yet, and I don't
> know who is responsible for proposing the criteria and approving them.
> Until somebody proposes something I suppose the "primary targets" are
> just those which are the most important historically or from the point
> of view of the majority of the contributors (x86*-linux, MIPS, HPPA,
> powerpc*, HPPA, maybe Alpha, maybe ARM, at least one *BSD target, ...).

I asked the SC a clarification on the release criteria for 4.x here:
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2004-10/msg01229.html

but got no answer.
-- 
Giovanni Bajo

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Joe Buck]

On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 02:36:22PM +0100, Giovanni Bajo wrote:
> I asked the SC a clarification on the release criteria for 4.x here:
> http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2004-10/msg01229.html
> 
> but got no answer.

An answer will take some time to produce.

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Gerald Pfeifer]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, Joe Buck wrote:
>> I asked the SC a clarification on the release criteria for 4.x here:
>> http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2004-10/msg01229.html
>> 
>> but got no answer.
> An answer will take some time to produce.

...but is under active discussion, we should note. ;-)

Gerald

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Mike Stump]

On Dec 2, 2004, at 5:36 AM, Giovanni Bajo wrote:
> I asked the SC a clarification on the release criteria for 4.x here:
> http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2004-10/msg01229.html
>
> but got no answer.

I don't feel they have to answer these questions.  If they feel any 
specific one is compelling to them, they should of course state a 
direction for us to move in; otherwise, the answers to your questions 
can be a consensus view of the people doing the work in gcc combined 
with what work people sign up to actually do.  Someone can propose 
numbers and criteria and solicit feedback.  The RM has the latitude to 
push us in that direction, or this one and to publish any such list as 
he sees fit.


For example, I propose that we consider Darwin a primary platform.  
This isn't crucial or critical, but, I think reflects reality better.

I propose that 25% speed regressions at -O0 are beyond what we consider 
ok.  I think we can conservatively say that 4% might be more reasonable 
and reflective of the current climate.

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Joe Buck]

> On Dec 2, 2004, at 5:36 AM, Giovanni Bajo wrote:
> > I asked the SC a clarification on the release criteria for 4.x here:
> > http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2004-10/msg01229.html
> >
> > but got no answer.

On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 11:54:58AM -0800, Mike Stump wrote:
> I don't feel they have to answer these questions.

Nevertheless, the SC is attempting to come up with an answer.  Patience,
please.

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Jonathan Wilson]

> That depends from release to release.  For GCC 3.4 you can find the
> list on http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/criteria.html under the header
> "Platform Support".  Same for GCC 3.3 and earlier.
ok, that page seems like what I want.
The only noted difference between 3.3 and 3.4 seems to be the AIX target 
which has been bumped up for 3.4 (presumably because a new version of AIX 
appeared)

I wonder why apple (i.e. OSX/darwin) is not a primary platform for GCC 
(given that GCC is the primary compiler for that plaform).
I guess it is because apple keeps a local branch of GCC with all sorts of 
apple fixes in them.

Personally, I would love to see the win32 GCC (mingw) target be given a 
higher priority (although that would rely on the mingw team being more 
perpared to keep things going) as this target is (AFAIK) the best currently 
available option as far as a free as in speech compiler for the windows 
platform goes.

Re: what are the "primary targets" for GCC?

[Joe Buck]

On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 10:04:40PM +0800, Jonathan Wilson wrote:
> I wonder why apple (i.e. OSX/darwin) is not a primary platform for GCC 
> (given that GCC is the primary compiler for that plaform).
> I guess it is because apple keeps a local branch of GCC with all sorts of 
> apple fixes in them.

The real reason is that the list of platforms has not been updated in a
long time, and was first made before anything called "Darwin" existed.
Yes, revisions are overdue.