Ghee: The restriction that we cannot use GCC has been lifted since gcc was integrated into vermillion into /usr/sfw/bin. That said, we do want to build vermillion components with Sun Studio unless there is a compelling reason to use GCC.
With C code, there is no issues with mixing code built with GCC and Sun Studio. It is a problem with C++ code. Currently two modules are built with GCC: + libcdio - This module uses GCC extensions that are not yet supported in Sun Studio and it would be significant effort to port the code to build with Sun Studio. + liboil - This module contains hardware acceleration assembly code that only builds with GCC. Sun Studio does not yet support building GCC-style assembly. It makes sense, I think, to build this with GCC to enable the hardware acceleration code when building on x86. It might also make sense to build libgphoto2 with GCC since we currently disable the sierra driver because that driver won't build with Sun Studio due to its use of GCC extensions. Not sure if this is a big deal, though. Note that the Mars compiler (the next version of Sun Studio) is supposed to fix a lot of the GCC extensions issues so we can probably avoid using GCC when building libcdio when we upgrade to the new compiler. Likewise I think the libgphoto2 issues I mention will go away. Brian >> The attached change to liboil causes it to be built with GCC when >> building on x86 platforms, so that hardware acceleration support is >> enabled. The new patch uses the getisax(2) kernel function so that >> hardware acceleration support is determined using the correct Solaris >> kernel interface. > > I can see why you want to do this. But I find this strange that GCC is > actually use in building some part of vermillion. Is this normal > practise or > is this the first exception? Does this create any potential run-time > problem > down the line? > No a linker/compiler expert, but like to ask some generic questions > here :) > > -Ghee >> >> I have verified that liboil functions are 4-6 times faster using >> GCC so that the GCC-style assembly code for hardware acceleration >> gets compiled, and we don't just use the default C-implementations. >> >> Brian >> >>
