Re: support of older compilers

From: Adam Heath (doogie_at_debian.org)
Date: 11/05/04

  • Next message: Henrik Nordstrom: "Re: [BK PATCH] Fix ip_conntrack_amanda data corruption bug that breaks amanda dumps" 
    Date:	Fri, 5 Nov 2004 16:19:05 -0600 (CST)
To: Willy Tarreau <willy@w.ods.org>

    On Fri, 5 Nov 2004, Willy Tarreau wrote:

    > On Thu, Nov 04, 2004 at 05:39:08PM -0600, Adam Heath wrote:
    >
    > > Using an old version of gcc because it is faster at compiling is a
    > > non-argument.
    >
    > If you can send to all of us for free some hardware which is twice as fast
    > as what we have, which does not generate more heat and noise, then perhaps
    > most of us will accept to use a twice as slow compiler. But not for long,
    > since some may realize that they can produce quality code twice as fast on
    > their new system ;-)
    >
    > At least, with fast machines and fast compilers, people have no excuse not
    > testing the patches they send. A few years ago, broken & non-tested patches
    > were very common. This could become standard again if everyone jumped into
    > gcc 3.4 unconditionnaly.

    My argument started when people starting complaining about new compilers being
    slow, and using that as the only reason to not use them.

    A single datapoint by itself can not be used in an argument here.

    You are adding additional requirements(using older hardware), as that makes
    the argument valid.

    > > If they produce bad code, then that's a valid reason.
    > > If they produce larger code, that is a valid reason.
    >
    > You can also ask the gcc people when they will decide to write a new version
    > which is able to compile some code which compiles with the previous release.
    > I have some tools which don't compile anymore with gcc 3 and error messages
    > look more like insults than information, and I don't even know how to "fix"
    > (adapt ?) them. This too is a valid reason to stick to older compilers.

    Not always. Older gccs accepted bad code; you can't honestly expect newer
    ones to always accept this bad code.

    Note: I'm not saying that's the specific case here.
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  • Next message: Henrik Nordstrom: "Re: [BK PATCH] Fix ip_conntrack_amanda data corruption bug that breaks amanda dumps"

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