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Re: gdb and iso-c
- To: Philippe De Muyter <phdm at macqel dot be>
- Subject: Re: gdb and iso-c
- From: Stan Shebs <shebs at apple dot com>
- Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 10:43:57 -0800
- Cc: gdb at sourceware dot cygnus dot com
- Organization: Core Tools, Apple Computer
- References: <200003241301.OAA04488@mail.macqel.be>
- Reply-To: shebs at apple dot com
Philippe De Muyter wrote:
>
> Up to some years ago, gdb could be compiled by a K&R C compiler.
> Now, it can not anymore, and the change seems to be deliberate.
Dude, we discussed this over a year ago, and we even tested it by
including an deliberately ISO-only file in 4.18. Not a single
user reported this as a problem with the 4.18 release, and I was
watching closely for such a complaint.
> It seems to me that the freedom of the gdb users is now restricted compared
> to the previous versions because of the need of an ISO-C compiler instead
> of any C compiler to compile it.
>
> And I do not understand why the same reasons that apply to binutils and gcc
> do not hold for gdb. gdb, because it is better than the debugger you get
> with your operating system, is needed to bootstrap the installation of
> gas, gld, or gcc in the likely case that not everything works well
> the first time.
Indeed, I sent our results back to RMS, saying that there didn't seem to
be any reason not to change the GNU coding standards for all GNU tools,
including GCC and binutils. I don't know if he actually made the
change though.
So I think we've been sufficiently careful to ascertain whether the
modernization was justified, and there is no good reason to try to revive
K&R compat and the additional complexity that goes along with it. In fact,
I've been a little disappointed that people haven't gone through random source
files, and simplified their sources by stripping out all the now-unneeded
K&R compat bits.
Stan