[OpenIndiana-discuss] The Register today

[Chris]

On 2021-05-10 02:23, Toomas Soome via openindiana-discuss wrote:
>> On 10. May 2021, at 12:05, Volker A. Brandt <vab at bb-c.de> wrote:
>> 
>> Toomas Soome writes:
>>> The immediate issue is https://www.illumos.org/issues/2757. In core, this
>>> issue means that negative 32-bit numbers are not translated to negative
>>> 64-bit numbers. Currently used gcc 4.4.4 does implement such translation 
>>> in
>>> compiler, there is no such patch for more recent compilers (firstly, the
>>> code path in more recent compilers has changed a lot, and secondly, such
>>> translation should be done by OS). This effectively does block switch from
>>> gcc 4.4.4. I actually am running gcc 7 built system, knowingly, keeping in
>>> mind that I may be bitten by problems cause by this issue.
>> 
>> In other words, when that issue is fixed, the primary compiler could be
>> switched to gcc 7?
> 
> 
> yes, assuming the needed cleanups are done;) but then again, this issue has 
> been
> open for ~10 years.
> 
> 
>> 
>>> Secondly, there are SPARC optimizer issues in gcc 7 and gcc 9 (likely with
>>> 10 as well), crashing compiler while building specific parts of illumos
>>> tree. One example:
>> [...]
>> 
>> Could this be worked around by selectively turning off -O2 until that
>> is fixed?
> 
> I have -O1 in my local patch, yes. But, the implication of this issue is, we 
> do
> not really know how much, or to what extent, we can count on gcc. I do 
> realize
> this does sound like FUD, but we do depend on external compiler and projects 
> are
> rather removing SPARC support...
> 
>> 
>>> I haven’t had time to open bugreport with gcc.
>> 
>> Fair enough.
>> 
>> [...]
>>> As a side note, it is interesting to see SPARC related discussion in this 
>>> list; there is no package repository for SPARC by OpenIndiana;)
>> 
>> Yes.  However, there are people working on new infrastructure for OI;
>> as soon as that is in place there will be a public repo for OI/SPARC.
>> 
> 
> Yes, I am aware of that too. From one hand it is nice, but from other hand, 
> there
> is a reason *why* I would vote for removing SPARC support.
> 
> And the reason is, I do think we should stop looking backward and start 
> looking
> forward. I’d rather spend my time on building support for things like arm64 
> or
> risc-v or some quantum computer or something what really matters for future 
> of
> this OS.
While I agree with you that OI _should_ look to, and target the future with 
its
development efforts. As that will ensure its future relevance. I'm a bit 
nostalgic,
and would hope that there is still a place for those that have the time, to 
post
their work in an OI supported (SPARC) repo.
-- long live SPARC!

--Chris
> 
> rgds,
> toomas
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