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On Wed, Oct 26, 2005 at 02:22:55AM -0700, Kean Johnston wrote:
> If you're working in an ISO9000 environment where every single source
> line change is tracked by a rather burdensome process, the last thing
> you want to do is invoke that process for some source base simply
> because the new compiler you are moving to behaves differently to the
> last 5 compilers you used.
If ISO 9000 is more than just a rubber stamp and instead represents an
actual commitment to Total Quality, the difference in behaviour between
compilers would be a signal into the management system that something is
amiss: that there is a particular quality problem with the code base
(misunderstanding of the language standard) and that it needs to be
fixed.
Also, if a sed script that modifies comments is too great a burden to
bear for such a beaurocracy, then using a different compiler should be
even more of a red-tape jungle. If it isn't, the management system is
broken and you might as well not bother with all those burdensome
processes anymore - they're not doing you any good.
My vote: I don't like surprises, and I'd like this code:
int x; // variable x \\
int y; // variable y \\
to do exactly the same as this code:
int x; // variable x \\
int y; // variable y \\
even if that behaviour is not the intent of the programmer. I want to
be able to print out the code and review it in bed at night and be able
to figure out why my code is broken (clobbering global variable due to
continued C++-style comment).
BTW is GCC's purpose to be a free (speech) compiler, or to dominate "the
market"?
If a company is too half-hearted about using GCC that they punt it with
"it doesn't work" without further scrutiny, then I fail to see why (FSF)
GCC should pander to their needs. But heck, if they paid me to do it
I'd also hack up a patch that puts this under control of the command
line and try to feed it into FSF GCC.
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