Developing/Production with GNU. Question: IS IT RELIABLE?

[James Van Artsdalen]

In <15 at ACT.UUCP>, bruce at ACT.UUCP (Bruce Himebaugh) wrote:

> Would those of you out there using GNU C, GNU Debugger and GNU EMACS
> consider it to be reliable?  Would you use it in a production
> atmosphere such as ours (i.e. write entire applications for other
> customers in it)?

1. gdb & emacs are far superior to anything AT&T offers, so no more
   needs be said here.  I use gcc extensively, and believe that it is
   now as reliable as AT&T's cc, and more reliable when optimizing.
   MIT recommends GNU C as the prefered compiler for X windows.  Intel
   uses GNU C as their supported compiler for the i960.

   There are probably significant holes still in areas people do not
   use often, such as inlining fancy asm's and so forth, but normal C
   programs are fairly safe.

2. A key advantage is that gcc is actively supported, whereas AT&T's C
   is basically unsupported (ie, if you find a bug, there's nobody to
   fix it).  New versions of gcc are released about twice a year.

3. GNU C supports both traditional C programs and ANSI.  AT&T's C
   compiler for SysVr3 does not support ANSI, and AT&T's SysVr4
   compiler doesn't support either very well (it's closer to ANSI than
   anything else, and many of the ANSI problems are in the headers).

> If so, what all do I need to download?  Obviously, I need the
> compiler, debugger and editor, but what else?  Libraries?  Is osu-cis
> a good place to get the most current version?

You need gcc, gdb & emacs.  You can use the native libraries on your
system.  osu-cis is a good place to get this via modem, or you can
order everything from GNU/FSF directly.
-- 
James R. Van Artsdalen          james at bigtex.cactus.org   "Live Free or Die"
Dell Computer Co    9505 Arboretum Blvd Austin TX 78759         512-338-8789