C Code mutilation by using gcc-3.3.x

[Robert M. Stockmann]

On Wed, 4 Feb 2004, Andrew Pinski wrote:

> 
> On Feb 4, 2004, at 12:01, Robert M. Stockmann wrote:
> > Whats going on here?
> 
> gcc 3.x supports C99 style of initializing of structors which was not 
> supported in 2.95.3.

To be more specific about what i am complaining about, here's a 
error message i get when doing ./configure inside ntfsprogs-1.8.4 :

checking version of gcc... 2.95.3, bad
configure: error: Please upgrade your gcc compiler to gcc-2.96+ or gcc-3+ 
version! Earlier compiler versions will NOT work as these do not support 
unnamed/annonymous structures and unions which are used heavily in linux-ntfs.
[jackson:stock]:(~/src/ntfsprogs-1.8.4)$

Aha, unnamed/annonymous structures and unions .....

Well thats briljant... in 2 years time all Open Source code will be unnamed
and anonymous in the form of propiatary .o modules, and Linus will still
be happy to deliver his /usr/src/linux/kernel subtree of the Linux
kernel source. Quite funny to see Open Source evolving by implementing
"modern" C compilers like gcc-3.x.

BTW. inside the Linux kernel source the Changes file explicitly states :

"The recommended compiler for the kernel is gcc 2.95.x (x >= 3), and it
should be used when you need absolute stability. You may use gcc 3.0.x
instead if you wish, although it may cause problems. Later versions of gcc
have not received much testing for Linux kernel compilation, and there are
almost certainly bugs (mainly, but not exclusively, in the kernel) that
will need to be fixed in order to use these compilers. In any case, using
pgcc instead of egcs or plain gcc is just asking for trouble."

Cheers,

Robert
-- 
Robert M. Stockmann - RHCE
Network Engineer - UNIX/Linux Specialist
crashrecovery.org  stock@stokkie.net