[...]
> > gcc-2.95 is around the corner, its prereleases generate _much_ better code
> > than gcc-2.7.2.
> I was under the impression that Linus has disputed the code generation thing,
What Linus has been questioning (AFAIU him :) is that he knows exactly
(more or less) what code gcc-2.7.2 will generate, and this isn't true with
later versions. You'd have to understand that Linus is a efficiency freak,
he wants minute control over the object code. The changed code generation
algorithms, new and rewamped optimizations, and assorted other changes in
the compiler mean that the certain way of writing code that used to give
the fastest object doesn't necessarily do so so anymore. I'd also say that
the linux kernel is _the_ piece of code that most uses (and stresses) the
different extensions (and quirks, even bugs) of the gcc compiler. So the
push towards more standards conformance, even the elimination of bugs in
the compiler got at odds with Linus. A famous case was the bug in ia32 that
allowed to write illegal asm statements (sadly in a way that was quite
logical). Linus does have a point, but the egcs people have to care not
just for the linux-kernel-compiler, they have to care for a general purpose
tool, even a host of other languages (The current GCC (GNU Compiler
Collection) includes C, C++, Objective C, FORTRAN 77, Java, and chill. More
are to come, at least Pascal is supposed to be integrated soon AFAIK). I'd
say that you loose somewhat locally, but the overall quality of the code is
much better. And the egcs folks _do_ care for the kernel, a bug in the
compiler exposed by the kernel is high priority; also caveats and
workarounds for problems compiling the kernel are routinely posted in the
compiler FAQ.
-- Horst von Brand vonbrand@sleipnir.valparaiso.cl Casilla 9G, Viņa del Mar, Chile +56 32 672616- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/