need for flag for incompatible-changes

[Joseph H. Buehler]

Per Bothner <bothner@cygnus.com> writes:

> The problem:  We need to continue to make changes to gcc exception
> handling, mangling, etc.  Some of these will be incompatible changes.

Keep in mind when you make abi changes in the compiler, that some
things are distributed as binary-only (e.g. Motif) and thus *cannot*
be recompiled by end users.  Motif is undoubtedly C code, so perhaps
less of a problem, but there are undoubtedly a bunch of binary-only
C++ libraries out there too.

A vendor can just recompile and redistribute, you say?  I am
currently forced to compile Motif apps against the redhat 4.2 headers
and libraries, even though my system is 5.0, because the Motif that I
bought from redhat is not compatible with 5.0's X libraries (because
of glibc 2, not because of compiler changes).  I have not tried egcs
with this mess yet, but intend to, and will keep you posted.

Granted, though: the "e" in egcs stands for "experimental".

Joe Buehler