Re: MASK_GNU_AS == MASK_GAS

[James E Wilson <wilson at specifix dot com>]

Fred Fish wrote:
> It appears that the ia64 port introduced the internal define
> MASK_GNU_AS that is used the same was as the historical MASK_GAS
> define.  There was some discussion of this about 5 years ago as part
> of a larger discussion about possible user level changes.

Is there a reason why you are asking?  Since target flag macros are
target dependent, there is no particular need for them to be consistent
across different targets.

For this particular case, I prefer the name MASK_GNU_AS because "GNU as"
is the correct name for the program in question, not gas.  rms has
corrected me about this issue in the past, so I have a strong tendency
to prefer GNU as over gas.

I realize that there is a lot of history for MASK_GAS, but I couldn't
bring myself to deliberately use an incorrect name, particularly when
using the correct name was so easy.  It probably wouldn't bother me too
much if someone changed it while I wasn't looking, but I'd rather not
change it myself.  At the same time, I'm not asking anyone else to
change, since others may not want to change their ports, so we are left
with a minor harmless inconsistency.

The same inconsistency appears in other places.  For instance we have a
configure option --with-gnu-as that sets an internal variable gas_flag.
-- 
Jim Wilson, GNU Tools Support, http://www.specifix.com