🚀 go-pugleaf

    I'm trying to make a decision as to whether to use gcc instead of
    Sun's ANSI C for which they are stupidly trying to charge universities
    per-machine license fees.

I agree with you that it's stupid to charge per-machine license fees.
I don't think it's stupid to try to cover costs.  The problem with
Sun's model is that they are charging for something that costs
nothing, and failing to charge for what's really expensive: reliable,
ongoing support.

    If I can't successfully build an "ALL gcc" (including shared
    libraries) X11, then I have to give up and pay Sun.

An alternative that does not involve "giving up" is to work with
vendors of support for free software.  These vendors have an interest
in keeping the software competitive with proprietary software and in
keeping you happy.  That's the best of both worlds.  These goals
cannot be accomplished w/o money.  I think of this not as the lesser
of two evils, but rather the difference between good and evil (or the
difference between smart and stupid).

    I installed the patches in gcc-2.3.2/README.X11.  After changing
    "syslimits.h" to "sys/limits.h" in limits.h, everything compiles,
    but NO executables build:

    gcc -fpcc-struct-return -o xeyes xeyes.o Eyes.o transform.o -O2   -L../.././lib/Xmu -lXmu -L../.././lib/Xt -L../.././extensions/lib -L../.././lib/X -L../.././lib/Xt -lXt -L../.././extensions/lib -lXext -L../.././extensions/lib -lXext -L../.././lib/X -lX11 -L/usr/local/X11R5/lib -lm  
    collect: /usr/bin/ld terminated with signal 11 [Segmentation fault]

    A segmentation fault is a little difficult to diagnose.  The time I'm
    spending getting things to work which should work out of the box but
    don't is begining to cost more than just forking out the money for
    commercial versions.

You are not the first person to realize that even under university
cost models, time is better spent writing research grants and
publishing results than duplicating support tasks the world over.

    Can't freeware do a little better than this?

I think so.  If you'd like information about the support services that
Cygnus provides, drop us a line at info@cygnus.com, indicate what
platforms and tools you are interested in, and somebody will follow
up.

Michael Tiemann
Cygnus Support		-- We make free software affordable