On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 10:03 PM, Richard Guenther <richard.guent...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Joern Rennecke <amyl...@spamcop.net> wrote: >> Quoting Richard Guenther <richard.guent...@gmail.com>: >> >>> On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 6:35 PM, Terrence Miller >> >> ... >>>> >>>> For example, as far as I know, no common Linux distribution provides a >>>> package for any kind of GCC branch. I believe (perhaps I am too >>>> optimistic) >>>> that some Linux distributions will package some few GCC plugins. >>> >>> You keep re-iterating this (IMHO bogus) argument. I don't see how a >>> plugin >>> in development is any different here - nobody will build or distribute it. >>> OTOH after a branch is mature it will be merged into the GCC core, so it >>> will be immediately available in distributed GCCs. >> >> It is not uncommon that a user complains about some missed optimization or >> pessimization that a proposed new pass might fix. >> At the moment, a developer might ask the user to download the latest >> experimental GCC from trunk, apply his special, even more experimental >> patch to it, build and install it (which might accidentally overwrite >> the stable compiler if the user has more privileges on the machine than >> sysadmin experience), and then check if his code gets better. >> Or the developer might ask the user to send/post his/her code, which might >> need manager approval, or be outright disallowed for confidentiality >> reasons. >> >> With a plugin, the developer can simply point the user at the place where >> he can download the plugin for his current version, and we can get quick >> feedback on the usefulness of the new optimization. > > It's not that simple if you are not suggesting that all plugin development > will happen against a stable branch. And even then the plugin binary > needs an exactly mathching gcc version - how do you suppose the user > will get that? By compiling both itself or by the developer being a > distributor of binary gcc versions alongside his plugin? > > Note that with the same reasoning the developer could provide patches > against a released gcc instead of just gcc trunk. > > Plugins don't make anything easier here. Really.
OTOH you can simply fork the existing gcc 4.5 packages for openSUSE, add a local patch and a custom suffix and get them built and distributed using the openSUSE build service with is free to use for everyone. You can even build for Fedora or Debian there. Richard.
