Re: [Mingw-users] GCC 3.1 (!)

[Oscar F. <of...@wa...>]

Danny Smith <dan...@ya...> writes:

>  --- Oscar Fuentes <of...@wa...> wrote: > Earnie Boyd
> <ear...@ya...> writes:
> >=20
> > [snip]
> >=20
> > MinGW is actually better than MSVC in more than one way. For instance,
> > only compilers with a modern EDG front-end have better C++ compliance
> > than GCC 3.1. However, AFAIK there is only one of such compilers for
> > Windows and its code generation needs much improvement, to say it
> > diplomatically. In any case, even GCC 2.95 is far ahead of MSVC 7.0 on
> > C++ compliance.
> >=20
> > [snip]
>=20
> Also don't forget about Fortran, ObjC, Ada.  And mixed language capabilit=
y.
> And the opportunity to fix things you think are broken.  What happens whe=
n you
> submit a bug report to commercial compiler maintainers? What happens when=
 you
> submit a patch?=20

I said something about that on the msg you quoted. Whenever I tell to
a Borland user that it is not rare to fix GCC/MinGW bugs the same day
it is reported, they stares to me with incredulity. Borland didn't
released a patch for their quite buggy C++ Builder 5 product in two
years. They buried their bug reporting system somewhere in the
website. Borland employees reacts defensively against those users that
dare to complain in the ngs. Finally, C++ Builder 6 was released with
most v5 bugs unfixed, plus some new ones. MSVC is better, but still
not as good as GCC/MinGW.

[sn=ECp]

> > > More popularity =3D=3D more visibility =3D=3D more corporate use.  So=
, if you
> > > speak to corporate that MinGW is a viable solution as compared to MSV=
C,
> > > it'll become more popular.  However, are apples really oranges?
> >=20
>=20
> A big "market" that no one has mentioned are students (self-taught as wel=
l as
> formally enrolled)  and educational institutions.  There is a lot of mutu=
al
> benefits to be gained by making  mingw as accessible as possible to the
> developers of the future.

Yes. My "community" idea is still around. One of this days I'll write
a proposal with the guidelines and netiquette. It's not an easy task
as my native language is not English. Maybe I'll try posting some
"advertisements" on those *.c/*.c++ ngs and mailings lists frequented
by newbies. I don't know too much about Ada, Objective C or Java, so
other people is needed for attending the newbies on those areas.

[snip]

> GCC3.1 is an amazing piece of work and the 3.x trunk is very
> dynamic.

Same view here.

> If we get the motor tuned for mingw, I'm not going to worry too much
> about the latest fashion in headlights and wing mirrors and a
> temperature-controlled glove-box I've always loved Volkswagens (as
> long as the heater works in winter).

Well, I'm the proud owner of a Renault-5, wich is quite similar to a
Volkswagen on its design rationale ;-)
=20
--=20
Oscar