Re: [Gm2] adding compiler to distributions

[Gaius Mulley]

Andreas Fischlin <address@hidden> writes:

> Dear all,
> 
> This reminds me of the distribution issues, I have been discussing with
> Gaius previously (last year). IMHO gm2 would profit greatly, if it
> would be released separately from gcc. Moreover, once you have a
> binary, it should be possible to move that binary among machines of the
> same platform, which is AFAIK unfortunately not the case with current
> gm2 release scheme. How do others think about this?
> 
> Please consider the following points: Most Unix systems of one or
> another form - BTW I'm coming from OS X (Darwin variant) - have
> typically already some gcc compiler installed. In the case of OS X the
> gcc preinstalled by default is often not the one gm2 uses. Why not
> following a release scheme where you get gm2 alone and that release is
> made for a particular gcc or a range of gcc. In case someone wishes to
> follow the same scheme gm2 uses now, this could still be done by any
> user by simply downloading an additional gcc component. And all those
> that already have a gcc installed, can simply add gm2 to the set of
> compilers without having to struggle with the coexistence of several
> gcc on the same machine. 
> 
> Anyone with me on this?

Hi Andreas,

I believe it can be released separately from gcc (I've just checked
the last deb package built and it contains a gm2 which should coexist
with a debian packaged gcc-4.1.2).  Using a gm2 compiler built on
another platform might be possible - but if it is to be installed in a
different directory it might be a less than satisfactory experience
for the user.  In theory it could work (I think) but the user would
have to always specify -B/path/to/cc1gm2.  This could easily be tested
by building gm2 for debian and using 'alien' to convert it into an rpm
and installing it under Fedora.  I did try this last year - it almost
worked..  there was a problem with crt0.o IIRC and I suspect this
could be fixed with a little time.

Certainly I like the idea of building gm2 when grafted onto particular
gcc sources.  This is probably the way to go - and hopefully would
allow cygwin MacOS ports to be much more stable.  I guess the next
question, is "in what time frame?" .. I was aiming to finish the ISO
libraries and type COMPLEX before the next release (aiming at New
Year) - but is this too far in the future?

Are there people on the list with Solaris, Gentoo, Fedora, Cygwin and
MacOS (any others) package building experience?  I can build debian
packages from some scripts I've obtained - if anyone is interested I
can put them up on the web site with basic instructions?  The debian
build process is reasonably automated, you just need a fast machine
or a lot of patience :-), as it uses the pdebuild chroot mechanism.

regards,
Gaius