Mike Hommey <m...@glandium.org> wrote: > Brian Smith wrote: >> It is very inconvenient to have a minimum supported compiler version >> that we cannot even do test builds with using tryserver. > > Why this sudden requirement when our *current* minimum "supported" > version is 4.6 and 4.6 is nowhere close to that on try. That is also > true for older requirements we had for gcc. That is also true for clang > on OSX, and that was also true for the short period we had MSVC 2012 as > a minimum on Windows. I'm not saying this is an ideal situation, but I'd > like to understand why gcc needs to suddenly be treated differently.
The current situation is very inconvenient. To improve it, all compilers should be treated the same: Code that builds on mozilla-inbound/central/tryserver is good enough to land, as far as supported compiler versions are concerned. So, for example, if clang 3.7 is what is used on the builders, then clang 3.6 would be unsupported. And the same with GCC and MSVC. Further, it is best to upgrade compiler versions as fast as possible, so that we can make more use of newer C++ features. I contributed many patches in bug 1119072 so that MSVC 2015 can become the minimum MSVC version ASAP. The same should happen with GCC and clang so that we can write better code using newer C++ features ASAP. (This also requires replacing STLPort with a reasonable C++ standard library implementation on Android/B2G.) >> Did any of them state a preference for not going to GCC 4.8? If so, >> what was the reasoning? > > At least for Debian, current stable can't build security updates with > more than 4.7. Isn't this a chicken and egg problem? If Firefox required GCC 4.9 then Debian would figure out a way to build security updates using GCC 4.9. It is easier for Debian to insist on GCC 4.7 so that's what Debian asks for. But, it is better to optimize for Mozilla developer efficiency than any Linux distros' efficiency. In particular, things like minimum compiler versions affect every Mozilla developer's efficiency, which affects the rate at which we can ship improvements to 100% of Mozilla's users. But, Linux-distro-packaged Firefox makes up less than 1% of the userbase. Note that I'm not saying Debian is unimportant. I'm saying that Mozilla should focus on what's best for developer productivity, and then assist Debian and others cope with whatever inconvenience that that strategy causes them. Cheers, Brian _______________________________________________ dev-platform mailing list dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform
