Re: Removing ARCNET stuffs

[David Holland <dholland-tech%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 11:50:24AM +0100, Justin Cormack wrote:
 > On 31 May 2015 at 00:09, David Holland <dholland-tech%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:
 > > I'm saying that, fundamentally, if you want to run gcc4 or gcc5 on a
 > > Sparc IPC that you're going to have problems. There is no way around
 > > this, except maybe to float a new compiler with the specific goal of
 > > both being modern and running on 25-year-old hardware. (That's an
 > > enormous project.)
 > 
 > I think pcc is currently the only realistic solution, but it still
 > needs a lot of work,
 > and we would want to do this without compromising support for gcc/clang, so
 > it means fixing pcc, as well as adding more architectures. (I would be happy
 > with a no c++ base system to support this). pcc has come a long way, and
 > we could get to a pcc base system for some architectures for 8.0 I think.

Right; the question is to what extent this ends up making those
architectures second-class. At some point (not necessarily this point)
it becomes a de facto fork with most of the problems and none of the
advantages of calling it one.

Perhaps in place of "fork" read "two development branches" -- it
certainly doesn't make sense to hold a schism and stop talking to one
another in the sense of certain events of ~20 years ago.

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost