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Usability Improvements in GCC 15

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Re: Usability Improvements in GCC 15

#5
post #4

I hope gcc remains the default in Linux due to the GPL. But I expect someday clang will become the default. Plus I heard COBOL was merged in with the compiler collection, nice!

GCC can honestly only blame itself for its inevitable increasing obsolescence. LLVM only has the attention it has because it can be used as a building block in other compilers. GCC could've made a tool and library which accepts IR, performs optimizations and emits machine code, but the project avoided that for ideological reasons, and as a result created a void in the ecosystem for a project like LLVM.

Re: Usability Improvements in GCC 15

#6
post #5
post #4

I hope gcc remains the default in Linux due to the GPL. But I expect someday clang will become the default. Plus I heard COBOL was merged in with the compiler collection, nice!

GCC can honestly only blame itself for its inevitable increasing obsolescence. LLVM only has the attention it has because it can be used as a building block in other compilers. GCC could've made a tool and library which accepts IR, performs optimizations and emits machine code, but the project avoided that for ideological reasons, and as a result created a void in the ecosystem for a project like LLVM.

There is now libgccjit that aims at allowing to embed gcc https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/jit/

There is an alternative backend to rustc that relies on it.

Re: Usability Improvements in GCC 15

#8
post #5
post #4

I hope gcc remains the default in Linux due to the GPL. But I expect someday clang will become the default. Plus I heard COBOL was merged in with the compiler collection, nice!

GCC can honestly only blame itself for its inevitable increasing obsolescence. LLVM only has the attention it has because it can be used as a building block in other compilers. GCC could've made a tool and library which accepts IR, performs optimizations and emits machine code, but the project avoided that for ideological reasons, and as a result created a void in the ecosystem for a project like LLVM.

The embedded compiler vendors, UNIX and consoles are quite happy with it.

How much do you think they contribute back upstream regarding ISO compliance outside LLVM backend for their hardware and OS?

Re: Usability Improvements in GCC 15

#9
post #5
post #4

I hope gcc remains the default in Linux due to the GPL. But I expect someday clang will become the default. Plus I heard COBOL was merged in with the compiler collection, nice!

GCC can honestly only blame itself for its inevitable increasing obsolescence. LLVM only has the attention it has because it can be used as a building block in other compilers. GCC could've made a tool and library which accepts IR, performs optimizations and emits machine code, but the project avoided that for ideological reasons, and as a result created a void in the ecosystem for a project like LLVM.

Yet another reason why I'm not a fan of Richard Stallman.

Most of the decisions he made over the past 25 years have been self-defeating and led directly to the decline of the influence of his own movement. It's not that "the GCC project" avoided that for ideological reason, Stallman was personally a veto on that issue for years, and his personal objection led to several people quitting the project for LLVM, with a couple saying as much directly to him.

https://gcc.gnu.org/legacy-ml/gcc/2014-01/msg00247.html

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2015-01/msg00...

(both threads are interesting reading in their entirety, not just those specific emails)

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