On Sun, Apr 10, 2005 at 06:12:53PM -0700, Mark Mitchell wrote:
What I'd like to know is why these users are using the option, so that
we can see if we think those uses are reasonable.
If we simply take the position that we can't break existing code, then
we certainly can't do what I'm suggesting. In general, we certainly
don't want to break existing code, but maybe if we look at the examples,
we'll decide we don't mind. On the other hand, maybe we'll decide
they're valid. Or, maybe we'll decide that there are so many examples
that breaking the code is a bad idea, even if each individual example is
a disgusting hack.
I assume that last bit is true. I'd need to see a pretty persuasive
argument otherwise. Put it this way:
- GCC uses it
- glibc uses it
- the Linux kernel uses it
- those are the system-level components that I am most familiar with;
newlib/libgloss don't, but three out of four that I checked isn't
too shabby.
Glibc uses it for a couple of things, including sedding compiler
output, though I am not exactly sure why. Linux uses are too varied to
summarize.