Re: [LI] c compiler

["Gurunandan R. Bhat" <grbhat@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 13 Nov 1999, Shanker R Swaminathan wrote:

> Wherever I have installed Linux or even at home, I grab the sources
> and compile it for the target machine( that includes glibc 2.1.2).

If you make that into a religion, I am afraid you would have to miss out
on several goodies that Linux Distributions bring with them. Here are a
few:

	1) xforms
	2) vmware
	3) db2
	4) adabas
	5) staroffice
	6) acroread
	7) ferret
	8) arcad
	9) blender
	10) eagle pcb-designer and layout router
	11) flagship
	12) informix
	13) insure-c++
	14) ixware (ERP)
	15) mtv
	16) neatbeans
	17) nps
	18) open link
	19) sybase
	20) ibm-viavoice
	21) xvoice

and many many other packages that do not distribute sources. Building
packages from source is important for developers who make changes to the
sources and see how these changes propagate, or for developers who plan on
porting the application to a different architecture. In the event that you
recompile pristine sources, all it tests is your ability to type
"CFLAGS=XXXXXX ./configure; make install".

There is one another instance where you might like to recompile from
sources --- when binaries of the latest versions are, as yet, unavailable. 

With *experimental* features like -O6 and pentium specific optimisations
you are throwing yourself open to implementations that could be a major
risk in a production environment. Remember that the "e" in egcs stands for
experimental. 

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