Re: gcc2.95, libttf2, xfree86, and Alpha

[Juliusz Chroboczek <jch@pps.jussieu.fr>]

>> * Modify this extension's build procedure, on Alpha, to not use 
>> optimization.  We certainly don't want to compile the entire X server 
>> without optimization.

Branden, I suggest you take this approach.  Unfortunately, this will
significantly slow down the speed of the rasteriser.

I guess something like the following (untested!) in
xc/lib/font/Imakefile should do the trick:

  #ifdef AlphaArchitecture
  CDEBUGFLAGS = /**/
  #endif

>> * Build X with gcc-3.0.  I have built the latest experimental
>> XFree86 4.2 packages with gcc-3.0 and they do fix this problem, and
>> seem to work OK.

Unless I'm mistaken, upstream do not officially support anything later
than 2.95 yet.  While upstream would be keen to get some wide-scale
testing with GCC 3, I do not recommend this approach in testing; it's
more of something that should be done in unstable.

>> * Get X to switch to freetype 2 (libfreetype6 on Debian).  This is
>> a non-trivial change, as the API was completely rewritten.

I'm glad you asked ;-)  This will hopefully happen in XFree86 4.3.0.
If you're willing to do some testing, please see

  http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/files/

If you're following upstream CVS, you will only need the main tarball.

                                        Juliusz