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Re: Should we split the project into two branches?


From: Gregory Casamento
Subject: Re: Should we split the project into two branches?
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:05:12 -0500

Andreas,

We don't have to tell developers who develop applications that because GNUstep currently works with clang.  Most of the issues mentioned (i.e. "new" features) are compiler-specific.  It is a common misconception that GNUstep has anything to do with GCC's feature set or that we are, somehow, in control of features added to GCC due to the fact that we are the major ObjC free software project.

GNUstep's core code tries to remain as compatible as possible with both tool-chains.  This is done very much on purpose.  When using clang, you can use many of the ObjC2.0 features.  The main one missing is ARC, and that is the main one I am concerned about.

Apple isn't concerned with remaining compatible with any other compiler, so they were free to move completely to LLVM/Clang and use its features in their implementation of the frameworks.   According to discussions, this saved Apple a lot of code and time debugging memory issues.  We don't have that option since our priority is freedom.

My point during this discussion is and has been that GCC's objc support is non-existent, so at some point, we will need to make a decision.   What I am hoping to do is to figure out what work needs to be done to make this happen on both sides (clang and GCC).

Yours, GC

On Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 12:40 PM Andreas Fink <afink@list.fink.org> wrote:


Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote on 14.02.22 17:43:
>
>> On 14 Feb 2022, at 14:59, Max Chan <xcvista@me.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> On Feb 14, 2022, at 8:23 AM, Richard Frith-Macdonald <richard@frithmacdonald.me.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 14 Feb 2022, at 11:43, Max Chan <xcvista@me.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Dear List,
>>>>
>>>> There are over and over again arguments on moving on to LLVM/clang for latest language features versus maintaining compatibility with old/uncommon platforms and GCC,
>>> Really this is simply not the case among GNUstep developers.
>>> Those of us who actually use the stuff just work with whatever we prefer/need, because GNUstep already works with both toolchains.
>> The hard requirement of allowing building using GCC means we are restricted to language features equivalent of OS X 10.6.8 or iOS 4.3.5,
> Please don't spread such nonsense on the mailing lists.
>
> The fact that we have a huge base of code that builds with both GCC and clang (and a small part that only functions when built with clang) in no way restricts us in the way we write new code.
>
> Having highly portable code is a strong point, but that doesn't mean that *all* features are equally portable or that contributors are required to write perfect portable code.
>
> It does the project a huge disservice to tell developers they 'have to use an ancient version of the language'. Please don't do it.

It does the project a huge reality check to tell developers they 'have to use an ancient version of the language *IF THEY WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO GNUSTEP*'.
That's says it all.





--
Gregory Casamento
GNUstep Lead Developer / OLC, Principal Consultant
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