Re: Compiler choice for OSS (WAS: Re: Trouble with Mozilla Java plugin)
On Sunday 01 June 2003 14:09, Roberto Sanchez wrote:
> This is something I have always wondered about. Why do OSS projects use
> gcc for every platform except Windows? I thought one of the great
> advantages of gcc was that is was ported to pretty much every operating
> system. Why not just always use gcc? Then there would be no need to
> maintain separate makefiles for different compilers.
It's about choice. Compilers are one field where these words actually make
sense. If you want a working, free compiler that has an OS built around it
(try to compile the kernel with something else and you'll see what I mean),
GCC is fine. If you want high speed and the last bit of optimization, you
might be better off with something else like Intel's ICC which can be a _lot_
faster for some tasks. If you want some C++ features like templates to work
the way they're specified, there's Comeau's compiler frontend. And if you
want ABI compatibility on a C++ based system (Windows), then you'd better
stick to the compiler that's supposed to support it.
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