Re: Will tree-ssa be GCC 3.5?

[Jim Wilson <wilson at specifixinc dot com>]

Phil Edwards wrote:
> I'm assuming that gcc 4 wouldn't actually be released until most of the
> problems above are solved?

That was one of the biggest problems with gcc-3.0.  People didn't want 
to release it until it was perfect.  The release got delayed so long 
that we went years without a release, and then when we did release it, 
there were so many accumulated bugs that many people couldn't use it.

I think it makes more sense to release it even if it is flawed.  We will 
find bugs sooner.  Also, that will provide motivation for people to fix 
the front-ends that are missing.  If gcc4 is held up until all front 
ends are fixed, then people will have little incentive to fix their 
front ends, and the release may be delayed indefinitely.  Certainly, we 
should make every attempt to fix as many problems before the release as 
we can.  But we should not delay indefinitely because some problems 
haven't been fixed yet.

That is also why I mentioned maintaining gcc3 and gcc4 in parallel.  It 
isn't a tragedy if a front end is missing from gcc4 if we are still 
supporting it in gcc3.
--
Jim Wilson, GNU Tools Support, http://www.SpecifixInc.com