GCC and my G4

[Ceilti cahill <ceilticahill at mac dot com>]

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the proper place to ask a question, but an  
Apple technician referred me here-bouts and I need a place to start,   
also, I'm hoping to get a fairly quick answer in case I decide to  
exchange my G4 for a G5.

I'm 23 yrs. old and have a lot of experience with Mac machines but  
until now - old ones inherited from older siblings. I'm brand new to  
OS X 4.3 and G4 iMacs. I've also had a lot of experience with  
HyperCard, Hypertalk, some with MacFortran and a little with C.

I was told that OS X came bundled with GCC, but mine didn't, and  
after browsing through these pages perhaps this is only true of iMacs  
with G5 cpu?

I want to use the GCC compiler to compile my own Angband and variant  
games - they are all open-source games whose versions until now I  
have been dependent upon a number of kind Mac people to compile for me.

So, if you don't mind I have a few short questions.

1. - I am thinking about exchanging my G4 for a G5 if this is the  
only way to get GCC. I guess I'm talking about a compiled version of  
GCC. I am unsure of my abilities to compile it myself.

2. - Will GCC work OK on my G4? if so is there compiling help  
available to me?  (both for compiling GCC and for using it for  
compiling the above games?

3. - and unrelatedly, I have been away from the world for about a  
year and am very shocked that Apple is going to leave Motorola and  
change to Intel. Considering this, would it be smarter not to get a  
G5 right now, but wait and invest in a newer cpu machine after this  
coming transition?

Thank you for reading this, and for at least steering me towards a  
more proper place with these questions. I was really hoping to use  
GCC as I have more months on my hands following a kidney transplant.  
and I need something to do. Two of my older brothers for years have  
wanted me learn C and C++ and see this period as an opportunity for  
me to start. That is why they recommended returning to Angband,  and  
getting GCC, but I'm afraid I may have made a wrong decision in my  
choice of machine. I did successfully compile Angband once when I was  
14. But it was on a Mac+ and I was using a very small version of  
CodeWarrior.

Thanks for your help, and happy Holidays,

Ceilti

ceilti cahill
ceilticahill@mac.com