Jason Thorpe wrote:
> 
> I've seen some people mention cross compiling...
> 
> Sure, cross compiling might be faster...
> 
> But, a big part of retrocomputing (please don't try to say that you're
> not all retrocomputing nuts; you're running VAXen! :-) is enduring the

Yes, I'm a retrocomputing nut, and I'm proud of it. :-)  This morning
one incident really reminded me of that.  I powered up everything in my
"machine room".  (This means a 386DX20, MicroVAX II, Sun 4/260, an RA90
for the MicroVAX II and two SMD drives for the 4/260 (the Fujitsu M2372K
and M2361 (Super Eagle)).  So anyways, all of this is working and
distributed over two 15 amp breakers when all of a sudden click,
click... major power fluctuations. Some breaker must have tripped and
then reset instantly twice in a row.  It must have been the main breaker
or even some power company equipment, but only affected half of the dual
120 volt inputs to the house.  I then moved some load to a different
breaker on a different 120 volt input and things are working fine, even
after I added another MicroVAX II to it all (this one is for a
friend).    

> pain of compiling software for your system... including the operating
> system..
> 
> I mean, when my sun3 was still working, I built the world on it, rather
> than on my (much faster) HP 380 (which has a 25MHz 68040).
> 
> The point is, your VAX desperately wants to be self-hosting... let it.
> It will love you for it...

Yeah, the VAX should be self-hosting, but there is a place for cross
compilation.  If the VAX is unstable then it is rather hard to do
compiles on it.  For example, a bit over half a year ago compiling a
kernel was torture because the system kept crashing.  I think it is
reasonable to do cross compilation if the system isn't sufficiently
stable.  

(Right now my MicroVAX II is fully self-hosting.  It is even acting as
an NFS and boot server for the 4/260 (until I install NetBSD/sparc onto
those SMD drives I just got).  The MicroVAX II must be happy now. :-)

-- 
|  Boris Gjenero <bgjenero@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>              |
|  Home page:  http://www.undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca/~bgjenero/     |
|  "Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to   |
|  depend greatly on our own point of view." - Obi-Wan Kenobi, ROTJ  |