Re: The default Ada compiler for Debian 8 "Jessie"
On Mon, 03 Feb 2014 00:13:39 +0100, Ludovic Brenta wrote:
Hello.
Hi,
GCC 4.9.0 should be released in a few months from now, possibly in
March
2014. It is already available in experimental and Matthias Klose is
actively working on it. Apparently[1] he intends to make GCC 4.9 the
default compiler for C, C++ and other languages as soon as it reaches
unstable, on as many architectures as possible.
The maintainer of Ada in FreeBSD and Dragonlace has stated at
FOSDEM[2]
that he intends to skip GCC 4.8 altogether for Ada and package GCC
4.9
instead (but note that the default C and C++ compiler on FreeBSD is
now
clang/LLVM, not GCC).
Debian 8 "Jessie" will be frozen on November 5, 2014 [3], which
leaves
us 9 months to transition all Ada packages to the next default Ada
compiler.
gnat-4.8 has been in Jessie (testing) since November 2013 but
gnat-4.9
does not exist at all yet.
We are faced with a tough choice for the next default Ada compiler.
If
we choose gnat-4.8, then the transition of all packages can start
immediately but Jessie ends up with an "old" compiler (4.8.0: March
2013) which is not the default for other languages and which is
different from the one in FreeBSD. If we choose gnat-4.9, this will
allow better support for Ada 2012 (e.g. contracts and other aspects)
and
probably a more recent version of PolyORB too.
I vote for as much support of Ada a2012 we can get.
I have just created the branch org.debian.gnat-4.9 in monotone and I
propose the following plan:
- starting right now, everyone interested (and in particular the
maintainers I talked to at FOSDEM: you know who you are!) works
hard
on updating all the Debian patches for gnat-4.9; this is the top
priority.
I won't attach a photo of me, but right now I have my Debian maintainer
costume :)
I should spent a good part of my work at lab to support gnat-4.9.
- at the end of March 2013 (two months from now), we review the state
of
gnat-4.9: is upstream GCC 4.9.0 released? Is it in unstable? Are
we
satisfied with the quality and stability of gnat-4.9? and we make
the
final decision as for the Ada compiler for Jessie.
- Immediately after this decision is made, we update all other
packages
to the chosen new compiler, starting with ASIS and PolyORB.
As soon as we have a start of gnat-4.9 available may be we can start to
work in // on ASIS and PolyORB ?
The obvious risk with this plan is that, if gnat-4.9 turns out not to
be
viable, we'll have wasted two precious months for the big transition.
Objections? Commitments? Exuberant enthusiasm? Lukewarm support?
Please tell me...
You know what ? I'm an Exuberant enthusiasm :) Indeed I already
downloaded the org.debian.gnat-4.9 :)
xavier
[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-gcc/2013/12/msg00034.html
[2]
http://people.cs.kuleuven.be/~dirk.craeynest/ada-belgium/events/14/140201-fosdem/10-ada-bsd.pdf
[3]
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2013/10/msg00004.html
--
Ludovic Brenta.
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