Re: Target CPU default selection on alpha

[Jeffrey A Law <law at upchuck dot cygnus dot com>]

  In message <19981218203058.A23463@dot.cygnus.com>you write:
  > On Fri, Dec 18, 1998 at 10:26:21PM +0100, Rainer Orth wrote:
  > > While this is convenient for a single machine, I suppose it may
  > > cause problems when the resulting gcc is run on a machine with a differen
  > t
  > > cpu type: e.g. configured for a 21164/ev5, but run on a 21064/ev4.
  > 
  > Not that particular example, but for example ev56 won't run on ev5.
  > 
  > > but its more in line with the treatment of other processors to leave
  > > this choice to the user (via --with-cpu=).
  > 
  > Hum..  I hadn't really given it much thought, since the alpha
  > port has "always" done it that way.  I suppose it would be 
  > better, since there would be less in the way of user error.
The PA (and other) ports have always done it like the alpha too.

There isn't any kind of consistency in this area.  For example the ppc
defaults to "common" mode.

It's not 100% clear that either choice is right.  There's arguments for
and against defaulting to the least common denominator for code generation.

Jeff