> As a fallback, I'd suggest a script that checks for package management, uses > it if present, let's the user specify the package manager if known, and exit > with an error condition if none of these conditions are satisfied. It still > presents unnecessary roadblocks that our scripts solve, e.g., some macOS > users neither have nor want to install package management, many package > managers require sudo privileges, there are many different package management > systems to check for, etc. Our scripts are long because we attempt to lower > the barrier of entry to rock bottom.
I understand that. GCC’s goal is quite different: it wants to build on a majority of systems, with few — but well-defined — prerequisites, and in a large number of configurations. That includes native systems, distributed compilation, cross-compilers, canadian crosses, etc. (I omit here the bare-bones and embedded systems as those are likely not targets for OpenCoarrays anyway). It’s great for OpenCoarrays to work “out of the box” on any compiler, autodetect its environnement and everything. I just don’t think it currently fits within GCC’s view of the build system. Also, there is the question of bootstrap: GCC can be bootstrapped on a compiler with a non-GCC compiler, but on such system libgfortran we be built as part of the compiler, while a GCC-adapted MPI library may not yet be available (because the compiler has not yet finished building). FX
