Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 09:28:30 -0600 From: bdodson@beowulf.utmb.edu (M. L. Dodson) To: hackers@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD/Alpha (was Re: COMDEX trip report) Message-ID: <199612031528.JAA10819@beowulf.utmb.EDU>
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Hi, If you guys decide to pursue the Alpha port (and I hope you do), please give due consideration to the several reasons why people might want to run Alphas instead of, e.g., PPros. One major reason is for serious number crunching. To that end, I would like to see g77 integrated into the gcc/cc which ships with the system. The relationship of g77 (which makes changes to the gcc backend to support Fortran) to the system gcc/cc (which is not compiled as a Gnu project gcc) has never been very clear to me. On 2.1.5R, I compiled the g77 port (which compiled and installed fine), but it would not run (could not find the proper backend; I did not pursue it further as my work machine is not running FBSD, primarily because I need to do these kinds of things). And I have been hesitant to just do a regular Gnu installation because I did not want to break the system compiler. f2c and the f77 f2c front end shipped by default with the system may be OK for casual code, but, as I understand it, g77 at the 0.5.18 level, at least, is now considerably faster. Even minor speed advantages are important for number crunchers. I know this version is quite a bit more successful in compiling some old DEC Fortran code I have than was an earlier version. I don't necessarily need Fortran in the base system (I doubt any part of BSD is written in Fortran), but I would like to see g77 support in the base system compiler with an option to install it. f2c can stay in as well as the f77 front end to f2c. But there should be an option for a very current version of g77 (it is changing quite a bit at each minor version number) that is totally consistent and integrated with the system c compiler. This type of layered installation has obvious parallels with the discussion of the inclusion of perl in the base system. Failing that, even a statement in the documentation that no part of the build the world procedure invokes gcc as such, but always calls it cc, would be useful. Then I could just install gcc/g77 by the regular Gnu installation procedure and be confident I was not breaking the base system. (gcc would invoke the g77-modified backend, but cc would use the system backend). Full integration would be better, however. Maybe I'm just confused, but thanks for these considerations anyway. Cost per floating point performance unit for these kinds of systems make them very attractive in my line of work, but the software has to be there to use that performance. Bud Dodson -- M. L. Dodson bdodson@scms.utmb.edu 409-772-2178 FAX: 409-772-1790
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