From owner-freebsd-stable Mon Aug 28 22: 4:15 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mail.hiwaay.net (fly.HiWAAY.net [208.147.154.56]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 61EAD37B443 for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2000 22:04:13 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nospam.hiwaay.net (tnt8-216-180-71-218.dialup.hiwaay.net [216.180.71.218]) by mail.hiwaay.net (8.11.0/8.11.0) with ESMTP id e7T54A713586; Tue, 29 Aug 2000 00:04:10 -0500 (CDT) Received: from nospam.hiwaay.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by nospam.hiwaay.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA41845; Tue, 29 Aug 2000 00:04:07 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net) Message-Id: <200008290504.AAA41845@nospam.hiwaay.net> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.1 10/15/1999 To: andrew@scoop.co.nz Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG From: David Kelly Subject: Re: Why is gcc version so old? In-reply-to: Message from Andrew McNaughton of "Tue, 29 Aug 2000 15:33:37 +1200." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 00:04:07 -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Andrew McNaughton writes: > > Using a FreeBSD-3.4 box, I notice that it uses gcc version 2.7.2.3. This > came out in January 1997, which seems rather an old version to use. Can > anyone tell me why this is so? Its one of the advantages of FreeBSD. A utility which does its job is worth more than a newer version which doesn't. At work I still use a 1991 version of the Introl 68HC11 C compiler. Have the latest too. But the old one is what I've always used for production. And the old one runs on my Mac when the new doesn't. BTW: Introl distributes NetBSD binaries of their Motorola cross compiling tools. But (strange) the Linux binaries are easier to use under FreeBSD. I'll never forget walking by a table at a "computer show" where two kids were holding a different Linux distribution each and where comparing the version numbers of all the included utilities to determine which was "best." In short, FreeBSD lets Linux users find the bugs in FSF code. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message