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GCC 5.1 Released
kthreadd writes: Version 5.1 of GCC, the primary free software compiler for GNU and other operating systems, has been released. Version 5 includes many changes from the 4.x series. Starting with this release the default compiler mode for C is gnu11 instead of the older gnu89. New features include new compiler warnings, support for Cilk Plus. There is a new attribute no_reorder which prevents reordering of selected symbols against other such symbols or inline assembler, enabling link-time optimization of the Linux kernel without having to use -fno-toplevel-reorder. Two new preprocessor directives have also been added, __has_include and __has_include_next, to test the availability of headers. Also, there's a new C++ ABI due to changes to libstdc++. The old ABI is however still supported and can be enabled using a macro. Other changes include full support for C++14. Also the Fortran frontend has received some improvements and users will now be able to have colorized diagnostics, and the Go frontend has been updated to the Go 1.4.2 release.
It is explained well here: http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-kbuild/msg11056.html
The whole world, as in Apple.
I have yet to meet a Linux developer doing anything real (i.e., NOT for-fun computing science stuff), who does NOT use GCC.
Show me a chip vendor Linux toolchain or embedded building framework (buildroot, Yocto, etc.) which does NOT use GCC. There are exactly zero.
And why not have both? GCC is the old, very reliable and well-known workhorse, that produces good results. LLVM is the new, hip thing that has not been around for too long and is a lot more experimental in philosophy than GCC. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Having both provides redundancy, choice and a way to compare features and actually get a relative estimate in relation to a different compiler.
Putting all eggs into one basket is a very commercial-software thing to do and it is not a good idea.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Missing features maybe. Like OpenMP, which is not there yet. LLVM and GCC feed off each other. Some competition is good.
Hmm... let's see... First off, you'll probably have better luck searching for C++ 11 than C++ 14, which were very subtle changes compared to 11, and not worth worrying about when first learning. You can read up on what changed in 14 later.
In a nutshell, I'd say that the biggest change is the notion that you should very rarely have to use raw pointers any more, meaning you generally shouldn't allocate or release memory with new or delete. By applying RAII principle and smart pointers, you can virtually eliminate all chances of accidental resource and memory leaks.
What's more, you get almost the same sense that you're using a language with managed memory, since you don't typically have to use delete, and even writing destructors becomes much more rare. So, I'd probably start by learning about the smart pointers and which versions to use when, how to properly cast them, and how to use the factory functions in place of 'new'.
I picked up a lot of information on the web via simple tutorial blogs about specific topics, but I also read through Stroustrup's book The C++ Programming Language (fourth edition) as a definitive reference.
Don't feel the need to rush into all the new features. Just start with the basics (nullptr, auto, smart pointers, class enum), and then move to more advanced topics (move semantics, lambas, etc).
Good luck!
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.