Re: portability as a goal for debian?
hamish@debian.org (Hamish Moffatt) writes:
> I don't think every software author should have to write for the
> simplest compiler just because some OSs don't have anything better.
No, but I don't think it's unreasonable to require (or at least
encourage) every software author to write to standards (ANSI for C/C++;
JLS for Java, etc.). If given a choice between writing code that'll only
compile on gcc or code that'll compile on any ANSI standard compiler,
I'll go with the ANSI-compliant code, if for no other reason than more
people are likely to be conversant with ANSI standards than gcc's
proprietary extensions.
Fortunately, gcc has -pedantic and -ansi, so it's not like we have to use
different toolsets.
> For example, from memory HP-UX doesn't have an ANSI C compiler
> as part of the standard OS, only K&R. Personally I'm not giving
> up ANSI C for any reason.
It's worse than that-- it's not even a full K&R compiler; it exists
solely for the purpose of recompiling the kernel.
-=Eric
--
To err is human, to moo bovine.
-- BSD fortune file
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