🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug13.142923.4575@cube.handheld.com> jmd@cube.handheld.com (Jim  
De Arras) writes:
> In article <1992Aug12.042213.29139@dtint.uucp> nevin@dtint.dtint.com writes:
> > So, what's the REAL gnu version of the NeXT compiler?
> > 
> > Alright, you might find a couple of other differences between the
> > C compiler shipped in 3.0 and the latest GNU version, but I for
> > one have no idea of what they might be.  Anyone else care to
> > enlighten us?
> > 
> > 
> 
> Per GNU, (check the newsgroups!) all 2.x releases are beta, and not ready for  
> prime time!
> 
> Jim

While this is technically true, we have found the 2.2.2 release of GCC to be AT  
LEAST as reliable as the NeXTStep 3.0 cc.  GCC has an extensive set of beta  
testers and talented developers, and is generally quite robust.  The only  
serious problems are with ports to new architectures, and with experimental  
optimizations (e.g., "-funroll-loops").

Releases 1.9x from GNU were alpha releases of the GCC 2 compiler.  I do not  
know whether the 1.93 from "cc -version" under 3.0 is derived from this  
convention.

GCC 2.2.2 has minor fixes compared to GCC 2.2, which has major fixes compared  
to GCC 2.0.  Always get the latest version :-).

Here is my attempt to sketch the differences between the NeXT 3.0 cc and the  
current GCC.

Unlike GCC 2.2.2, NeXT cc has:

- New Objective-C keywords, like "@protocol" and "@class"
- "id" as a built-in type, not a "typedef void *"
- cpp modifications to support the "new and improved" header file structure,  
plus support for '#include "m68k/" "foo.h"' (for example)
- Precompiled headers
- "Literal NXConstant String Objects"; i.e., syntactic sugar for creating  
strings (This [finally] gives C a *real* string type, complete with fancy  
operators.  It should also facilitate the move to international character sets.   
Maybe.)
- More new Objective-C keywords, like "@public" and "@private"


Unlike NeXT cc, GCC 2.2.2 has:

- Computed gotos
- Arrays of labels
- Explicit initialization of array and structure elements; for example, "int  
a[6] = { [4] 30, [2] 20 };" is the same as "int a[6] = {0, 0, 20, 0, 30, 0};".   
"NXPoint p = { y: 2, x: 10};" will do the obvious.
- Case ranges, like "case 1 ... 40:"
- A somewhat better optimizer

NOTE: This information is based on the NS 3.0pr1 C compiler.  It is probably  
incomplete, and may well be inaccurate with respect to the shipped version of  
NS 3.0.

Mat Hostetter (mjhostet@athena.mit.edu) and I hacked up the GCC 2.2.2  
preprocessor to allow us to compile C programs under NS 3.0pr1.  We did not  
attempt to incorporate the new Objective-C keywords.  So we can currently  
compile C programs, but not Objective-C (some ObjC header files use the new  
keywords).

Perhaps GNU will incorporate the new ObjC features into GCC in the near future.   
Let us hope so.

- Pat