Hi Riccardo, yes need your input! Reasoning for list I offerred:
apple-gcc42 stays, of course. unique and needed on 10.4 gcc4.8 … tenfourfox gcc5 … for the java compiler used in pdftoolkit on older systems gcc7 … current default compiler used for 5 years now on 10.4/5, well known, but staring to be a few things it can’t build, hence the pressure to upgrade gcc10 .. last one that builds without c++11 … little used, but we need a fallback about here, so this is a guess as to a good fallback gcc14 … current, has been used for the past year or so as the default compiler on ppc (by a small number of people TBH) If this is to be useful and worth doing, the list needs to be shortish. Another could be added later I suppose, but would be some pain. All others would be dropped, (except the bootstraps) as anything they built would potentially ABI breaking due to mismatched libs. > On Nov 20, 2024, at 02:16, Riccardo Mottola <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Hi Ken, > > I think in the past, I asked for something similar. > > Two questions: > 1) if a user wants a compiler beyond the "golden list"? will you remove the > ports alltogether or will it just mean for him more compilation because it > builds another libgcc? > 2) can we start with a minimal list and then "tweak" things if we discover > some software not building and add e.g. one or two versions later? > > Ken Cunningham wrote: >> The list of uniquely useful gcc compilers might be as short as: >> >> gcc-4.8, gcc5, gcc7, gcc10, and gcc-14. >> >> All those already build on the older systems, and are at least a manageable >> list of versions to maintain. >> >> Could we ask for thoughts and possible get consensus that the list of gcc >> compilers supported by MacPorts be shortened to a list such as that? > > Making this list is I think a trade-off between a newer compiler breaking old > code and capability of also compiling newer software. > > My favorite is usually: > > gcc4.8 (very good for old stuff... very stable everywhere and never found the > need to use gcc 4.2 instad of gcc 4.8 except to stick with apple versions) > gcc 6.5 : best "classic" compiler on 10.5/10.6, reliable, definitely to be > included in list > gcc 8 : first "modern" compiler > > and then... gcc12 or 13 just because I used them long time and gcc14 is new, > undecdided about which to choose > > I think gcc5 can be dropped.. either 4.8 or 6.5 should do > > gcc7 has been for a year the newest compiler on 10.5 for me, but can it be > replaced by 6.5 or gcc8? > > gcc10: could we try do drop it and have latest? > gcc14 - I have used it very little on MacOS - but I do on linux and it is > very finky...
