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Looking At Changes In the Newest GCC

Posted by timothy on from the keeping-abreast dept.

cyberpead writes "With GCC 4 comes a new optimization framework (and new intermediate code representation), new target and language support, and a variety of new attributes and options. Get to know the major new features and their benefits in this article."

18 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. They've optimized it so much... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That they were able to reduce it down to just one C. Now it's just GC.

    1. Re:They've optimized it so much... by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      That they were able to reduce it down to just one C. Now it's just GC.

      Of course. It's a GNU Compiler.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  2. Umm, gcc 4 was released 2 years ago by vlad_petric · · Score: 2, Informative

    Granted, 4.3.2 is pretty cool, but AFAIK it's not revolutionary wrt earlier 4.* releases

    --

    The Raven

    1. Re:Umm, gcc 4 was released 2 years ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      But most developers still do not know the important differences between 4.x and 3.x other than the superficial ones like changes in headers that need to be included(ie stuff that breaks their code). For example, few seem to be aware that GCC does profile guided optimization now with -fprofile-generate and -fprofile-use switches(not even mentioned in the article).

    2. Re:Umm, gcc 4 was released 2 years ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You missed one of the largest improvements in the four series was time travel. This article was actually published two years ago.

      The Slashdot team are now frantically searching for the wormhole in their office. This is also why there are so many dupes, articles keep popping down GCC invoked wormholes.

      Really, Stallman is just messing with us for modding-up comments like this one.

    3. Re:Umm, gcc 4 was released 2 years ago by sxeraverx · · Score: 4, Informative

      One of the things I personally am the most excited about is the ability to do function-level optimization in 4.4. Last year, I had a project that required me to have compiled code be as fast as possible, but you could only submit one source file and no Makefiles, which would be compiled with no arguments, optimizations, etc.. With this, I could throw the optimizations straight into the code, instead of having to compile with optimizations, taking the assembly, throwing that into a wrapper C file, and hoping the code was tested on the same architecture.

  3. gcc 4 is "new"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've been using it for a year and a half now.

    1. Re:gcc 4 is "new"? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The article is about 4.x, and covers everything including the latest 4.3.x series. It's very light on details, however, so unless you know next to nothing about GCC you are unlikely to learn anything.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:gcc 4 is "new"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Wouldn't it be more logical to start supporting C++ 98 first?

    3. Re:gcc 4 is "new"? by XDirtypunkX · · Score: 2, Informative

      As it has done since VC2003 thanks to the hard work of Herb Sutter? DUN DUN DUN.

  4. Wow...scary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wow! With all of that, you'd think I was truly enamored with GCC. Let's just say that when I'm developing software with GCC and my wife walks into the room, I feel a little uncomfortable.

    That's a little creepy.

  5. Re:Just taking his time I guess by aesiamun · · Score: 3, Funny

    He was too busy getting busy with gcc 3.x when his wife wasn't in the room :)

  6. Re:FINALLY by pablomme · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are you implying that you're using Fortran 77?

    That's just... gross!

    --
    The state you are in while your HEAD is detached... - wait, what?
  7. Re:FINALLY by kwabbles · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well up until today I haven't had a decent compiler for 95 - so what was I to do? Use FTN95? That's even more grosserest.

    --
    Just disrupt the deflector shield with a tachyon burst.
  8. Re:FINALLY by pablomme · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well up until today I haven't had a decent compiler for 95

    Other than gfortran: g95, NAG's, PathScale's, Intel's, Absoft's, Sun's, Lahey's, Portland Group's, Compaq's...

    For things other than PCs, there's IBM's, Cray's, Hitachi's, Fujitsu's...

    You have no excuse! But please tell me it's not that you actually like Fortran 77... :)

    --
    The state you are in while your HEAD is detached... - wait, what?
  9. Re:Just taking his time I guess by Doug+Neal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seriously! From TFA:

    With all of that, you'd think I was truly enamored with GCC. Let's just say that when I'm developing software with GCC and my wife walks into the room, I feel a little uncomfortable.

    Yeah, GCC 4 has more backends, the little slut.

  10. Let me know when GCC4 is available for MingW by jonwil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Big deal about all this GCC4 stuff, let me know when GCC 4.x becomes available for MingW as an official build (or better yet, when the GCC community stops treating Windows builds of GCC as second class citizens)

  11. One target language still missing: XML by mma · · Score: 3, Funny

    There is still one major target language missing: XML. Hopefully gccxml will one day be merged into the main source tree.