MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: Previous Testing: gcc-4.3.0-20080502-mingw32-alpha

Notes:
The MinGW.org team is pleased to offer a binary release of GCC 4.3.0.

Warning: This is an alpha testing release.  That means the build may
contain major missing functionality and serious bugs, including silent
incorrect code compilation.

MinGW needs your help to test this compiler!  Please try out this
release and let us know what you think.  Contact information is below.


PREREQUISITES

This binary release requires a PC with a 32-bit version of Windows, such
as Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP, or better.

You will need to have an existing MinGW installation that includes at
least the following:--

- binutils 2.13
- mingw-runtime 3.13
- w32api 2.2



AVAILABILITY

This release is available for download from the following URL.

https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2435&package_id=241304

You need one of the following files:--

gcc-4.3.0-20080502-mingw32-alpha-bin.7z      (http://www.7-zip.org/)
gcc-4.3.0-20080502-mingw32-alpha-bin.tar.gz

If you do not want to download the entire compiler, it is possible to
download only the parts that you need.

Be aware that some archive extracters do not preserve read-only
attributes of files. If you are installing the Ada component, please
check that the files in the /lib/gcc/mingw32/4.2.1-dw2/adainclude and
adalib directories are flagged as read-only. This attribute is necessary
to prevent them from being deleted when using gnatclean to clean a
project.




INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

Use an archiver of your choice to extract this package over your
existing MinGW installation, which is usually located in c:\mingw.

This will replace your old GCC version, if any, as the default compiler.

To uninstall or return to your previous version, you can extract the
version you want over this version, optionally deleting the old files.

Alternately, if you do not want to replace your old installation, you
can extract to some other directory of your choosing, and add the bin/
subdirectory to your PATH environment variable.



NEW FEATURES SINCE MINGW GCC 3.4

Windows-specific:--

- Shared libgcc: If all modules are linked with -shared-libgcc,
  exceptions can be thrown across DLL boundaries.

- Shared libstdc++: Add -lstdc++_s to your link flags to link against a
  DLL version of libstdc++.

- Zero cost exceptions: New exception model Dwarf only has performance
  penalty when being thrown.  The old model, SJLJ, is no longer
  available.

- Thread local storage support: The  __thread keyword is honoured.

- Translations into your language! See MINGW\share\locale for a list of
  codes.  Set the LANG environment variable to the code of your
  preferred language.

  $ export LANG=es
  $ gcc
  gcc.exe: no hay ficheros de entrada

In general:--

- New language: Java 1.5, using Eclipse front end.

- New language: Objective-C++, intended to bridge C++ and Objective-C
  code.

- Improved optimisation: SSA optimisation framework, IPA support,
  autovectorization of loops, and more.

- Support for new IA-32 processors and SIMD instruction sets.

- Support for TR1 and experimental support for the next C++ standard.

- Fortran language rewritten to support new standards.

- Improved debugging information: Dwarf-2 debugging is now the default.
  Make sure to get the latest GDB version for the best debugging
  experience.

- OpenMP support (broken).

For more information, see <http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.3/>.



KNOWN PROBLEMS

- Exceptions can't be thrown through foreign frames.

- OpenMP is broken: Programs will crash at runtime.

- gij is broken: It will crash at runtime.



CONTACT INFORMATION

Bugs:      http://www.mingw.org/bugs.shtml
General:   mingw-users at http://www.mingw.org/lists.shtml


Changes: