Subject: gcc
To: None <amiga-dev@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Christian E. Hopps <chopps@water.emich.edu>
List: amiga-dev
Date: 02/16/1995 17:26:31
Look I see someone "*really* regreting" dependencies of the NetBSD source
on the compiler ditributed with NetBSD.  What *EXACTLY* is the problem?

We distribute a compiler with the sources for NetBSD that works.  There
is *ZERO* need to use another compiler.  No vendor of OS's I have heard
of guarentees that their kernel sources etcc will compile with anything
but the shipped compiler.

There are specific bug fixes and changes in the NetBSD version of gcc2.4.5

That said, of course at some point we will upgrade the compiler in NetBSD.
There is no reason for the distributed gcc in NetBSD to track the latest
and possibly buggy versions of GNU's gcc.

Some of the newer ports need a newer version of gcc, so it will be upgraded
at some point.  However once that happens you can again expect us to not
continue to upgrade with GNU releases until need merits.

BTW I imagine that if our tree didn't have C++ code in it (groff is it I
think)  We probably wouldn't ship the C++ version of gcc.  Maybe that will
help clarify the point.

Chris.