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

[Maxim Sobolev]

Roman Divacky wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 06:07:48PM -0500, Sabeeh Baig wrote:
>> There is work being done on PCC, which is already capable of compiling
>> the OpenBSD and NetBSD userlands.  PCC is also quite a bit smaller and
>> already performs better than GCC.  OpenBSD folks are helping with the
>> development of PCC, so they can replace GCC in the base.  That might
>> be a solution for FreeBSD too, at least as a system compiler.  GCC
>> could be available as an add-on through ports for those who need it.
> 
> I really dont see any reason why there must be only ONE compiler that
> can be used to compile FreeBSD.
> 
> If you will work on making FreeBSD compile with pcc I am sure noone
> will mind. I am working on clang..... someone else might pick cparser
> and god knows what else....

Nice idea, but...

I think that one thing that people often forget about when talking about 
using external compiler to build base system is that FreeBSD is not only 
self-hosted, but also that it supports cross-builds of any of the 
supported arches. This feature would be physically impossible to 
maintain for any extended period of time with 10 supported compilers 
maintained outside of the tree.

-Maxim