Alternatives to gcc (was Re: gcc 4.3: when will it become standard compiler?)

[Pedro F. Giffuni]

----- Original Message ----
...
> 
> Well, initially my question was triggered by reading a performance duell
> between FreeBSD 7/8, most recent U(n)buntu and OpenSolaris and someone
> stated the 3% performance gain of U(n)buntu over FreeBSD was due to the
> gcc4.3 compiler, which generates more efficient code. 3% mean
> performance gain could mean (as I made this experience) a better
> advantage in some special cases and having in mind numerical modelling
> running on my lab's FreeBSd box (yet, but I think this is about to
> change and move towards a RH Linux system due to the better support of
> HPC and, a pitty, our admins build the cluster with RH and not FBSD).
> 

Even when it can be measured, performance can be very subjective, performance
depends on many factors: the threading libraries, the options used to build the 
packages, the filesystems and maybe even the position of the moon ;-). Most of 
my numerical packages don't depend on the system compiler but rather depend on 
what the ports system uses as the Fortran compiler so you will be glad to know 
that we are indeed using gcc4.3 since last week.

> 
> Well, as I understand the discussion about the binutils (there seems to
> exist a very similar problemacy), did RH already cut off the leashes by
> introducing their elftools? Correct me, if I'm wrong.
> 

We already have our own libelf and related utilities however the tough part seems 
to be having a good assembler that supports all our platforms. I understand the RH 
elftools have that but I don't know their current state. Also the maintainers of these 
utilities are known to be rather unfriendly with other camps.

Pedro.