[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] Drop support for gcc-2.95

[Stefan Huehner]

On Mon, Jul 10, 2006 at 02:38:55PM +0200, Diego Biurrun wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 10, 2006 at 08:53:38AM +0300, Uoti Urpala wrote:
> > The gcc 2 branch has been dead upstream for a long time. Supporting it
> > requires frequent workarounds especially for variable declarations. The
> > repository has already not compiled with gcc-2.95 for nearly 3 weeks and
> > it seems Rich was the only person who noticed. The attached patch
> > officially drops 2.95 from the list of supported versions.
> > 
> > The arguments I've heard for keeping gcc-2.95 support are that it
> > compiles faster (though the resulting code is slower on most platforms),
> > and that some platforms might not have support for newer versions.
> > 
> > I think that the speed argument does not justify keeping support for old
> > unmaintained compiler versions, and it seems moot anyway since current
> > developers apparently do not use it for faster compiles (as mentioned
> > above the repository already hasn't compiled with 2.95 for nearly three
> > weeks).
> > 
> > I do not know accurate numbers for platforms that would not support
> > newer compiler versions, but unless someone can give credible numbers
> > showing otherwise I don't believe they are worth keeping 2.95 support.
> > Nor do I have much sympathy for such platforms, if they use
> > long-obsolete versions for their toolchain they shouldn't expect to
> > compile the latest client software versions.
> 
> Search the archives, I have done extensive compiler comparisons on x86 a
> long time ago.  The result was that gcc 3.x prior to 3.4 just plain
> sucks.  3.4 finally managed to produce binaries that are as fast as those
> created by 2.95, but it takes considerably longer (40-60% IIRC).
> 
> We can discuss this once a gcc >= 3.4 is part of all mainstream
> distributions (meaning at least Debian stable).  Until then it's
> completely out of the question.

Hi,
gcc-3.4.3 is already available in debian stable. But it is not the
default compilet used to build all packages.

Stefan