Subject: Re: Built GCC 3.3.3 on Cygwin, should I use it?
From: Mikael Åsberg <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 15:52:57 +0100

>> 
>> I've tried to rebuild a number of programs I have written using GCC 3.3.3
>> and
>> every single one of them seem to work as they should. Many of them are
>> Win32
>> GUI programs (written in C++), some are programs using posix functions.
>> 
>> So my question is: What problems can I expect if continue to use GCC
>> 3.3.3?

>Other then dealing with non-standard install locations (probably leading to
>the c++ issue you had), and probably missing cygwin-specific features there
>shouldn't be any 'problems'.  An example of something likely to be missing
>is -mno-cygwin.

Thanks for your quick and helpful reply, Mr Pearce!

The non-standard install location was intentional. I didn't want to overwrite any files belong to GCC 3.3.1 so I could still use that at any time, and from some small tests I have made, it seems I have managed to leave the GCC 3.3.1 install intact, which is what I wanted.

I am using Cygwin and GCC to become familiar with posix, common unix tools, and to learn c and c++ programming (plus learning win32). So I have never compiled any of my programs with -mno-cygwin, but I noticed that it doesn't work when I use GCC 3.3.3, just as you said it wouldn't (and it won't work if I use any posix functions either, no matter what compiler I use, right?). So by installing a newer version I have not lost anything but the capability of running my programs on other computers running Windows but lacking Cygwin? And the benefit of installing
is gaining a number of fixes of bugs that I may or may not encounter (I have looked at the list of fixes, but haven't gone into great detail)?

>> Should I go back to GCC 3.3.1 or is it fine to continue to use the later
>> version? Any other drawbacks of this upgrade? Any benefits? If someone
>> would
>> shed some light on this I would be grateful.

>Given you have installed in a separate location it is not like you have any
>problems here, you can use the installed gcc 3.3.1 when you need it - and
>your own built 3.3.3 when you need that.  You haven't 'upgraded' as such
>just installed a newer version as well.

>But given that you don't know why you've installed it, perhaps you just
>shouldn't bother with it.  3.3.3 is mostly a bug fix release relative to
>3.3.1 - go visit gcc.gnu.org to find out what bug fixes have occurred.  Now
>if you haven't experienced the bugs, then there is probably no point for you
>to have a custom build and you should just wait for whenever the cygwin gcc
>maintainer updates the cygwin gcc distribution.  However if a bit of
>research finds that 3.3.3 has something you want then by all means, use it -
>we're not going to stop you.  ... Well okay, I'm not going to stop you.

>Gareth

Regards, Mikael Åsberg

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