Re: Removal of support for GCC hosted on UWIN

[Mark Mitchell <mark at codesourcery dot com>]

>>>>> "Chris" == Chris G Demetriou <cgd@netbsd.org> writes:

    Chris> By the way, I don't see anything on the GCC mission
    Chris> statement that says that when the FSF or RMS says "jump,"
    Chris> the GCC project (as steered by the steering committee) has
    Chris> to say "how high."  

I'm not going to comment on the U/WIN particulars.  I'm not an expert
on U/WIN.

However, the GCC mission statement is not the operative document to
govern my behavior as a GCC co-maintainer.  That is a position granted
me by the FSF, and along with certain rights and privileges, it
carries definite moral responsibilities.  In particular, even were I
to disagree with an FSF decision, I would either honor that decision,
or resign my position.  That does not mean I do not occasionally
disagree with the FSF, or argue for alternative positions -- but, in
the end, I will either acquiesce or remove myself.

RMS asked the SC to remove this code.  So, I removed it.  It really is
that simple.  (FWIW, the original idea was to remove all U/WIN bits; I
suggested that we leave the U/WIN target bits, since GCC is already
used to build non-GPL'd programs in many situations.)

The mere fact that there may be uses of the removed code which do not
violate the GPL really has no bearing.  It's an FSF judgement call as
to whether or not to include that code.  The FSF chose not to do so.
That makes building a U/WIN hosted compiler more difficult -- but
reduces the chance that people will (perhaps accidentally!) violate
the GPL.

It also raises awareness of the FSF's position regarding U/WIN in
particular, and other similar environments in general, as evidence by
this discussion.  That is good; otherwise, people might believe that
that the FSF doesn't really care if you put a U/WIN hosted compiler on
an ftp site, for example.  Now, it is clear that the FSF does not want
people to do this, and believes that the GPL prohibits such an action.

--
Mark Mitchell                   mark@codesourcery.com
CodeSourcery, LLC               http://www.codesourcery.com