[kde-solaris] Gentle Question

[Michael Schuster]

Kunal Deo wrote:
> Hi Stefan
> 
> Thanks for your quick response. I understand the reason to support  Sun 
> Studio.  But KDE offcially supports GCC 4.x series. Thats why I've 
> decided to use gcc. Moreover toolchain has been ported as well. I've 
> ported almost everything and its running fine. KDE4 is in progress.
> 
> I did run into few problems but I've fixed that (including compilation 
> of strigi)
> 
> 1. GCC 4.3 error where it doesnt compile functions like strcpy() 
> memset(), but works when you add "include <cstring>"
> 2. Linking problems when you use POSIX calls which are not system calls 
> in solaris but are general library, classic example is
> 
>   sched_setscheduler() which can be fixed by using -lrt and so on.
> 
> So far the performance has been very good. And runs quite comfortability.
> 
> Let me know your thoughts.

good to know it worked. It might be interesting for others if you could 
publish in detail (maybe on a blog ... ) what you had to do to get this 
going.

If your whole intention in this project was to get KDE4 running on 
Solaris, congratulations.

I do wonder though what you're trying to achieve in the long run (if you 
do at all) ... or are you satisfied with a one-off success?
- Will you (or a team following your lead) be prepared to maintain 
whatever set of tools/sources/receipes is necessary so you can keep up 
with KDE4 on Solaris changes with gcc?
- Will you go to the (probably not insignificant) effort to modify the 
build infrastructure to build with both Sun Studio and gcc?
- Might it not be more worthwhile in the long run to invest your time 
and apparent skill into helping out with the ongoing effort of building 
KDE4 on Solaris with Sun Studio?

regards
Michael

> 
> 
> Stefan Teleman wrote:
>> On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 1:55 AM, Kunal Deo <Kunal.Deo at sun.com> wrote:
>>   
>>>  Hi Stefan
>>>
>>>  Thanks for the reply. I wanted to know why GCC is not supported for KDE4.
>>> So far I have compiled everything except strigi and hope I will do that
>>> also.
>>>     
>> There are several reasons:
>>
>> 1. For KDE4 on Linux (and even for KDE3), there are restrictions as to
>> which versions of GCC are supported -- some versions of GCC are known
>> to miscompile KDE.
>>
>> If we start introducing additional complexities with supporting GCC on
>> Solaris, then we have to reconcile the GCC version restrictions on
>> Linux and FreeBSD with the GCC version restrictions on Solaris. Noone
>> has the time to determine which versions of GCC are OK across all 3
>> platforms.
>>
>> 2. GCC does not have a stable C++ ABI. GCC's C++ ABI has changed
>> several times between GCC releases, and simply stating "GCC is
>> supported" is misleading: only C++ ABI compatible versions of GCC
>> would be supported.
>>
>> 3. Sun PSARC rules require that any C++ software available in
>> Solaris/OpenSolaris, which exposes public API's, must be built with
>> Sun Studio, and with the Sun C++ ABI Version 5. PSARC/2002/348 (ICU)
>> is publicly available at opensolaris.org (the PSARC case which
>> enforces this requirement).
>>
>> [1] and [2] simply introduce too much complexity. [3] is a hard
>> requirement: we must support Sun Studio.
>>
>> You can still try to build KDE4 with GCC. However, you will run into
>> problems. There will be "unsupported GCC Version" problems, and there
>> is already C++ software in Solaris/OpenSolaris which has been built
>> with Sun Studio, and which is used by KDE4 (examples: PCRE, OpenEXR,
>> and more). Sun Studio C++ ABI and GCC C++ ABI are not compatible with
>> each other. You will not be able to link the already present C++
>> Solaris software with GCC.

-- 
Michael Schuster 	http://blogs.sun.com/recursion
Recursion, n.: see 'Recursion'