Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!pyramid!prls!philabs!sbcs!root
From: root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (root)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: where can I find C++, how much $$?
Summary: GNU gcc cross compile to Amiga
Message-ID: <1312@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: 5 Jun 88 22:37:01 GMT
References: <330@uwslh.UUCP> <254300008@trsvax>
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Lines: 29

Since I started doing networking for Ameristar, the development
system I have used looks like this:

	Sun "cc" -> Sun "as" -> Sun "ld" -> Ameristar "conv" -> Amiga

Recently I've started switching our stuff to the following system:

	GNU "gcc" -> GNU "as" -> Sun "ld" -> Ameristar "conv" -> Amiga

"conv" is a simple backend that eats Unix a.out format and produces
Amiga hunk format (with optional wack sym tables, etc).

I've found in (some admittedly informal) tests that GCC seems to generate
code better (speedwise) than Sun's own compiler included in SunOS v3.5.  
Also, GCC gives one the ability to change the frame pointer from a6 -> a5
(so that a6 need not be saved for lib calls), the option of using
register param passing, inline code, add appropriate peephole optimizations,
etc.  To build Amiga interface libraries, we use a simple processor to 
read .fd files and produce library call stubs.  For libraries, I use 
a highly modified version of Manx library code (mods done to get better 
Berkeley compatibility).  Of course the eventual goal is to start 
migrating our stuff over to (GC)C++.

I am not able to release any of the work I've done, but I thought
people would like to know that is it in fact possible to build
a highly functional cross compiler environment using the GNU stuff.

					Rick Spanbauer
					SUNY/Stony Brook
					(& Ameristar)