Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:05:59 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <matthew@FreeBSD.org> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Why Clang Message-ID: <4FCF9C07.2000607@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <4FCF9333.70201@speakeasy.org> References: <4FCF9333.70201@speakeasy.org>
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On 06/06/2012 18:28, Thomas D. Dean wrote:
> Has the discussion on why change to clang been made available?
Yes, endlessly. Mostly on lists like freebsd-hackers@... and at various
conferences and developer summits. Check the list archives.
> I would like to know the reasoning.
It's simple. gcc-4.2, which is what the base system compiler is derived
from is:
* fairly old
* doesn't perform as well as more recent compilers
* doesn't adhere to recently established standards
Clearly an update was necessary. Unfortunately, later versions of gcc
have switched to GPLv3, which is a viral license and unacceptable to the
FreeBSD project.
Therefore clang was chosen from amongst a number of alternatives as the
best replacement. That makes it sound as if clang is a second class
option compared to recent gcc, but this is certainly not the case:
results from clang are comparable to the latest gcc versions and the
design of clang is such that further optimizations and improvements can
be readily incorporated.
> Or, is it simply a gratuitous change?
I can assure you that the changes were not made specifically to annoy
you. Of course there were very solid technical reasons behind what was
selected.
Cheers,
Matthew
--=20
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey
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