Subject: Re: newlib vs glibc
From: [email-masked] (Jim Balter)

27 Mar 1997 23:58:14 -0800
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Distribution: cygnus
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Original-To: Fergus Henderson <[email-masked]>
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Fergus Henderson wrote:
> 
> Jim Balter wrote:
> >
> > [...bug in bsearch()...]  A better fix is to replace bsearch.c
> > with the simpler, more efficient, and more comprehendable one from
> > glibc (in fact, all of newlib should be replaced with glibc, but that's
> > another story):
> 
> So why do we have two C libraries?

I'm not sure what you mean by "we".  Cygnus (Steve Chamberlain?)
decided for some reason, when creating gnu-win32, to put together their
own "newlib" from Berkeley code and various other sources, rather than
use glibc.  Perhaps glibc wasn't in good shape at the time or newlib was
already used internally at Cygnus or ...; the answers to such questions
often involve complex and ad hoc history.  There are various couplings
between cygwin.dll and newlib such that one cannot casually rip out
newlib and replace it with something else.  Certainly not when that
something else is glibc, which has its own framework for coupling with
the lower level system.  Nonetheless, converting to glibc might well be
worth it in the long run.  I have my own plans for a POSIX dll that I am
pursuing, and one of my requirements is that it be integrated into
glibc.  Some of that effort might also work toward making it easier to
integrate cygwin.dll with glibc, but that's not my main goal.  I just
threw out a couple of provocative comments about glibc to see if anyone
would take the bait; glibc is of significantly higher quality than
newlib, partly because it has a wider user base, partly because it is
higher on the evolutionary tree, and partly (largely) for the kind of
talent (e.g., Roland McGrath, Ulrich Drepper) involved in it (the sort
that GNU projects tend to draw).

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<J Q B>
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