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Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:19:07 -0700
From: Brian Dessent <brian AT dessent DOT net>
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Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated experimental package: gcc4-4.3.2-1
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Angelo Graziosi wrote:

> But: Why 'alternatives'?

Because it allows for the user to configure a preference rather than
ramming it down their throat.

> Why, in Cygwin, we can't have gcc.exe (i.e 4.3.2) and gcc-3.4.exe, etc...

That's exactly what you would get when using alternatives.  You would
always be able to use the names gcc-4.3 and gcc-3.4 if you want to refer
to a specific version.  But you would also be able to configure what the
plain "gcc" maps to, so you can have yours set to 4.3 and someone else
can have it set to something else, so that they don't have to repeatedly
"./configure CC=the-other-gcc" because they wanted a different version
than what the package manager decided to call "gcc".

Brian

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