Re: will netbsd be sticking with gcc?

[Mayuresh Kathe <mayuresh%kathe.in@localhost>]

On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 08:19:04AM +0200, Martin Husemann wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 07:40:52AM +0530, Mayuresh Kathe wrote:
> > i have heard good things about pcc, mostly, except for perhaps the
> > fact that it doesn't yet support all the netbsd platforms which
> > gcc does.
> 
> And it has no C++ compiler.
> 
> We live with several compilers in-tree and try to officialy support
> anything sane (even outside the tree, e.g. gcc 4.9 for playstation2
> support, but that part is broken currently) - the exact choice depends,
> as you note, on the architecture.
> 
> If you are building NetBSD for x86 or arm you can choose clang/llvm as
> an alternative compiler, and you can compile big parts of NetBSD with pcc.
> We are especially looking at pcc for m68k, as some machines (e.g. sun2)
> are not able to execute modern gcc at all (or for anything > hello world
> type of programs). Gcc is nice for cross-building those ports, but not as
> a native compiler shipped with the system.

true, it has incomplete c++ support, but i think ragge is working on it.

i am looking to build as much of netbsd (without x11) with pcc as possible.
this is a purely tinkering and experimenting project.
may i know which parts of netbsd don't build with pcc? and why?

also, i'm still quite raw at netbsd, but, is it possible to eliminate
portions of the netbsd kernel and build a fresh, highly focused and optimised
system for amd64 architectures? and yet be able to tap into pkgsrc?

gcc is nice, but massive, on the other hand, pcc is quite nimble. :)

best,

~mayuresh