On Mon, 22 Feb 2010, Erik Trulsson wrote: > As for the relative hurts. Code compiled for a newer CPU (making use > of newer instructions) will not run at all on older CPUs not supporting > those newer instructions. Much hurt there. > > On the other hand code compiled for an older CPU that is run a newer > CPU will run just fine, if slightly slower than they could have due > to not making use of new instructions in the newer CPU.
That can well be seen as a point for _making_ the change: when it fails, the user/admin knows there is a need to adjust, whereas silent degradation will continue to make look GCC bad and hurt its traction and adoption (as Steven and others have experienced). Gerald
