Re: [tlug] Apple vs. FSF and gcc 4.2.1

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

>  > and that this is why later versions than gcc 4.2.1 are not
>  > supported on the Mac.
> 
> Very unlikely.  While GPLv3 is not as good a license as GPLv2 IMHO,
> GCC is not embeddable or extendable, so who cares about the license?
> GCC is just a tool in the chain, and the license is free.  Get a life!
> :-)
> 
> The issue is GCC itself.  Apple has bet on extendability and
> embeddability (LLVM).  See JC's post...

Yes, that was interesting. What I didn't realize is that clang now
supports C++ (including some of C++11 [1]), and there is a linux
version. Ooh, and an ubuntu package for it!

So, what you're saying is that later versions of gcc could be made to
work on Macs, it just needs someone to bother to work on it? Does it
need Apple to be involved, or could anyone do it? (As gcc is GPL I don't
see how there could be a closed source component that Apple need to supply.)

Darren

[1]: http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html
(Sadly no lambda support yet.)



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Darren Cook, Software Researcher/Developer

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