Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!spdcc!merk!alliant!rosenkra From: rosenkra@Alliant.COM (Bill Rosenkranz) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Re: GNU c and c++ under MINIX (long) Message-ID: <2398@alliant.Alliant.COM> Date: 22 Sep 88 00:05:13 GMT References: <4061@louie.udel.EDU> Reply-To: rosenkra@alliant.UUCP (Bill Rosenkranz) Organization: Alliant Computer Systems, Littleton, MA Lines: 56 In article <4061@louie.udel.EDU> frank@morgan.com (Frank Wortner) writes: ->Bill Rosenkranzwrites: ->>there has been a lot of discussion in the past regarding the huge cost of ->>source for the minix c compiler. has gcc (the GNU c compiler) and possibly ->>g++ (the GNU c++ compiler) been ported to minix? since it is essentially free, ->>this sounds like a very attractive alternative to the existing situation. -> ->"Huge" is, in my opinion, an exageration. The source costs $99, not much ->more than the $89 that Minix itself costs. Admittedly, I have a steady, ->rather well-paying job, so I can fork over a hundred dollars without much ->pain. Other people may not be so lucky. Still, in comparison the cost of ->many other common bits of software and hardware -- two to three thousand ->dollars for a nice PC system comes to mind -- $99 is cheap. wait a second, partner...if i recall correctly, the stuff u get for $99 is NOT the back end stuff which (correct me if i'm wrong) is something like $800 or so...NOT cheap, even for me (i have 3 computers on my desk at home and plan to buy a mac II). ->I also don't believe that GCC is "essentially free." There are a few hidden ->costs involved. First is media. If I want GCC, I will have to supply i got gcc for my 4 MB atari (:^) for the cost of 5 disks (which i got back and which serve as a backup...as i said: essentially FREE... (i got g++ via uucp as well). i'm sorry, it DID cost me 2 way postage, about $3... u can get it via uucp (~2-3 MB) for < $50 at 2400 baud (late nite, weekends) ->Even if all of these costs are reduced to zero, there is still the possibility ->make that the probability, that GCC won't fit into the 64K per program ->limitation of "stock" IBM PC Minix. (Wow, ten years ago we all thought ->64K was more memory than anyone would ever need!) GCC and GNU were not ->meant for "small" computers. This does not rule out cross compilers, ->but that's a frustrating and expensive way to play. i agree here...actually gcc will be VERY difficult to port to segmented memory machines (after all, "segments are for worms" as one of the people who responded to my original question replied :^). ->Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking GCC. Although I have no personal ->experience with it (yet), I'd be willing to bet that it's a good piece of ->work. It probably produces better code than the Minix ACK C compiler. ->The source is probably more useful. Minix C source does not include the ->tools used to generate tables for the table-driven front and back ends of ->the compiler, while a complete GCC distribution probably includes everything. gcc is very nice on the ST, especially with a 2 MB ramdisk and another 2 MB left over. guess i'll just wait for ST Minix... -> For me, ->the ability to "plug in and play" was worth the cost. not for me, however. i need to fiddle around :^) -> Frank -bill