Developing/Production with GNU. Question: IS IT RELIABLE?

[Chris Anderson]

In article <15 at ACT.UUCP> bruce at ACT.UUCP (Bruce Himebaugh) writes:
>Our company has been looking for a good C compiler for a long time (i.e.
>preferably ANSI compliant).  We are currently doing most of our Unix
>development using an Altos Series 2000 and are very displeased with the C
>compiler and tools available with it (e.g. lack of a good debugger).
>
>Would those of you out there using GNU C, GNU Debugger and GNU EMACS consider
>it to be reliable?  Would you use it in a production atmosphere such as ours
>(i.e. write entire applications for other customers in it)?

Ummm... well, yes, sort of.  I use GNU Emacs every day in a production
environment.  It's stable, and there isn't any other editor out there
that (IMHO) matches it.

I also use GNU cc in a production environment as a cross compiler
from Pyramid to 68000 targets.  It's not bad.  There are several cases
where bad code was produced, but only under pathological conditions. 
For the most part, it has performed very well.  Far better than the
Plexus C compiler that came with my 68000 machine.

GNU cc *has* produced bad code several times on the Pyramid, though. 
Not knowing the Pyramid assembly language, I have been unable to fix 
the problem.  We use Pyramid's cc in that case.  

I have not used GNU cc on an i386.  However, friends who have tell me
that it's relatively stable and that they use it routinely.  Remember,
though, that GNU cc is in beta test.  I see numerous reports in 
gnu.gcc.bugs for it.  Most of the bugs appear to be pathological cases,
but ...

So, to answer your question: Yes, I would use gcc and emacs in a
production environment.  I *would* tend to watch the output of gcc,
though, until I felt comfortable with it.  But if you write "standard"
C, you should have no problems with it.

I have never managed to get gdb running on the Pyramid, so I can't
tell you much about that.

>If so, what all do I need to download?  Obviously, I need the compiler,
>debugger and editor, but what else?  Libraries?  Is osucis a good place to get
>the most current version?

Use the libraries supplied on your machine.  You need at least gcc,
emacs 18.55, and gdb.  You might also need gas, binutils, bison, and
the COFF patches (if Altos uses COFF).  Other people, who have built
these things on a 386 should be able to tell you more.

>Any information pertaining to this matter would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hope this helps.

Chris
-- 
| Chris Anderson                                                       |
| QMA, Inc.                     email : {csusac,sactoh0}!utgard!chris  |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| My employer never listens to me, so why should he care what I say?   |