Re: [PATCH]: Update news and gcc-4.3 changes for new MPFR stuff

[Gerald Pfeifer <gerald at pfeifer dot com>]

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006, Kaveh R. GHAZI wrote:
> This patch updates the web pages for news and gcc-4.3 changes to mention
> the new MPFR/GMP requirements and the new optimizations they enable.

Thanks for the patch!
> 
> I'm not a web expert, so a little extra careful review would be much
> appreciated.

Sure, no problem.

> Index: index.html
> ===================================================================
> +<dd>Kaveh Ghazi has integrated the GCC middle-end with the <a
> +    href="http://www.mpfr.org/";>MPFR</a> library.  This allows GCC to
> +    evaluate and replace at compile-time calls to built-in math
> +    functions having constant arguments with their mathematically
> +    equivalent results.  As a result, to build any GCC front-end
> +    language you need to have this library and the <a
> +    href="http://www.swox.com/gmp/";>GMP</a> library available.  See
> +    the <a href="gcc-4.3/changes.html">GCC changes page</a> for more
> +    details.</dd>

Hmm, this is a bit long for our main page.  Something like "...library,
allowing for more effective compile-time optimizations.  MPRF and
<a href...>GMP</a> are now required to build GCC." perhaps?

To optimize the last sentence away, you could make the second occurrence
of MPRF a link, and have "integrated the GCC middle-end with the MPFR
library" a link to the gcc-4.3/changes.html page.

If you give the part of gcc-4.3/changes.html where requirements are 
described in more detail an id, as in...

> Index: gcc-4.3/changes.html
> ===================================================================
>  <h2>Caveats</h2>

<h2 id="caveats">...</h2>, you can use a link such as <a 
href="gcc-4.3/changes.html#caveats"> to link directly to that specific
part.

Similarly, "more effective compile-time optimizations" can become a
link to the other part in gcc-4.3/changes.html where you add a nice
paragraph.

>      See the <a
> +    href="../install/prerequisites.html">prerequisites page</a> for
> +    version requirements.</li>

Would you mind making this an absolute link to
http://gcc.gnu.org/install/prerequisites.html?  In general we definitely
do prefer relative links, but this part of the web pages is only on 
gcc.gnu.org, but not www.gnu.org where we also (have to) host a copy of
our pages.

> +    <li>The GCC middle-end has been integrated with the <a
> +    href="http://www.mpfr.org/";>MPFR</a> library.  This allows GCC to
> +    evaluate and replace at compile-time calls to built-in math
> +    functions having constant arguments with their mathematically
> +    equivalent results.  In making use of <a
> +    href="http://www.mpfr.org/";>MPFR</a>, GCC can generate correct
> +    results regardless of the library implementation or floating point
> +    precision of the host platform.  This also allows GCC to generate
> +    identical results regardless of whether one compiles in native or
> +    cross-compile configurations to a particular target.  The
> +    following built-in functions take advantage of this new
> +    capability: <code>acos, acosh, asin, asinh, atan, atan2, atanh,
> +    cbrt, cos, cosh, erf, erfc, exp, exp10, exp2, expm1, fma, fmax,
> +    fmin, hypot, log, log10, log1p, log2, pow, pow10, sin, sincos,
> +    sinh, tan, tanh</code> and <code>tgamma</code>.  The
> +    <code>float</code> and <code>long double</code> variants of these
> +    functions (e.g. <code>sinf</code> and <code>sinl</code>) are also
> +    handled.  (The <code>sqrt</code> and related functions were
> +    already optimized in prior GCC releases.)  </li>

I like this.  Strictly speaking, we'd have to write <code>acos</code>,
<code>acosh</code>, <code>asin</code>,... but I do not want you to break
your fingers, so feel free to ignore this part of the review. ;-)

> +    <li>Due to the fact that the <a
> +    href="http://www.swox.com/gmp/";>GMP</a> and <a
> +    href="http://www.mpfr.org/";>MPFR</a> libraries are required for
> +    all languages, Fortran is no longer special in this regard and is
> +    available by default.</li>

Looks good.  I think we can omit the links to GMP and MPFR here, but
that's just a very subjective observation.

Thanks for taking the time to describing these changes so well!

The patch is fine with those changes, or you can post a revised version
and I will be happy to quickly have a look at that.

Gerald