Re: [RFC] QEMU KVM target -> Anthony

Jim Paris
2007-03-18T22:36:54Z

> I like to have only the latest versions of software installed
> here. For me, it doesn't make sense to use gcc3 only to be able to
> compile qemu, since I'll not use it on any other software.

Why not install them both? Most distributions make it quite easy.
For Debian/Ubunty, "apt-get install gcc-3.3" and you'll have it in 60
seconds. If you want to remove it when you're done, it's just as quick.

> Well, to be honest, I think that qemu author should have
> migrated to gcc4. I can't understand why someone still uses gcc3 for
> development. I mean, the author could take a weekend and fix all the
> code to compile with gcc4. Is it so hard? I think it's the natural order
> of things.

I don't think it's appropriate to tell the qemu authors what they
should be doing. Perhaps the problems are more complicated than you
believe and they thought their time was better spent elsewhere.

> We should get rid of old things, as fast as possible.
> Gcc3 has no future, so why keep using it?
>
> Besides that, gcc4 offers a lot of options that gcc3
> doesn't. It's faster, I can use its vectorizer and optimizes better the
> code. If it takes too long, we'll have gcc 4.3 and qemu will be still
> requiring gcc3. Don't you think it's absurd?

GCC 4.x also introduced many new bugs. For a list of just the known
regressions, see: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ywvpxv

-jim