On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 9:59 AM Thomas Koenig <tkoe...@netcologne.de> wrote:
> > On the page https://gcc.gnu.org/install/prerequisites.html it says: > > > > Perl version between 5.6.1 and 5.6.24 > > > > Necessary when targeting Darwin, building ‘libstdc++’, and not using > > --disable-symvers. Necessary when targeting Solaris 2 with Solaris ld and > > not using --disable-symvers. > > > > Necessary when regenerating Makefile dependencies in libiberty. Necessary > > when regenerating libiberty/functions.texi. Necessary when generating > > manpages from Texinfo manuals. Used by various scripts to generate some > > files included in the source repository (mainly Unicode-related and > rarely > > changing) from source tables. > > > > Used by automake. > > > > My impression is that Perl 5.6.x is long obsolete (5.6.0 was released in > > March 2000), and the available 5.6.x versions were 5.6.0, 5.6.1 and 5.6.2 > > (never 5.6.24). Much later versions of Perl (5.32.0 is current) will > work > > fine. > > Do they also work with --enable-maintainer-mode? IIRC, they break with > automake. > Not sure, but… If not, then we should leave it as it is. > There is no Perl 5.6.24 — there never was a Perl 5.6.24. There was never a Perl 5.6.3, or Perl 5.6.4, let alone 5.6.24. Therefore, the upper version number should be changed to a valid version of Perl — or eliminated with "or any later version of Perl 5.x" or some such verbiage. Maybe the intent is to cite Perl 5.24 or 5.24.0. And if it is, then maybe that can be updated to Perl 5.32.0, and maybe it can't. But Perl 5.6.24 is WRONG because it is a non-existent version of Perl. I'm not sure what the upper version number should be changed to, but citing a fictional version doesn't help anyone (though people have ignored the fiction for a long time so maybe it doesn't hurt much). I don't mind about the lower version number — at least version 5.6.1 existed, and it might, I suppose, still be in use in some places, though it seems unlikely that anyone using or maintaining GCC 10.2.0 would be using such an antique version of Perl. There might be a good reason why 5.6.0 can't be used but 5.6.1 can — I fear that such fine-grained detail is probably lost in the mists of history. Wikipedia gives a history of Perl versions, but mainly for the 5.x.0 versions for stable releases (so it omits 5.7.x, 5.9.x and all other versions above 5.6 with an odd minor version number, as those are development/unstable versions): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_5_version_history The PerlDoc site gives a very detailed version history including release candidates, etc: https://perldoc.perl.org/perlhist.html Equally, if no-one else cares about the fictional version, then I guess I've raised a pointless issue. Sorry. -- Jonathan Leffler <jonathan.leff...@gmail.com> #include <disclaimer.h> Guardian of DBD::Informix - v2018.1031 - http://dbi.perl.org "Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be amused."
