[kde-solaris] [kde-discuss] Gentle Question

[Shawn Walker]

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 4:06 PM, Mats Rojestal
<mats.rojestal at bredband.net> wrote:
> Hi Shawn,
>
>  Thats interesting, why don't join forces with GNU and speed up
>  gcc/g++ sparc backend?
>  The Sun Studio C++ ABI difference will have a negative impact
>  on Sun/Solaris in the long run.

I'm not certain why Sun has chosen not to, though I suspect it is for
the same reasons that Intel doesn't share all of their optimisations
with the gcc folks for Intel processors. (Intel produces their own
special compilers, etc.)

As for the Sun Studio ABI difference, it actually has quite the
opposite effect in the long run. The GNU C++ toolset is even
incompatible with itself between some versions, and has never been
stable. In comparison, the Sun Studio C++ ABI has not been broken for
over a decade I believe.

Stability and compatibility matter to Solaris users, and changing the
ABI is not a good way to make friends :-)

-- 
Shawn Walker

"To err is human -- and to blame it on a computer is even more so." -
Robert Orben