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Re: g++-3 and g77-3 packages under setup-x86.exe


I would be happy to build gcc-3 myself, I'm just looking for some documentation to get that done.

The fact the gcc-3/g77 are old means nothing to me. There are still millions of lines of fortran77 code out there that are being used. There is just no reason to spend years of man hours to update the code and result in new code that gives the exact numerical answers as the old code. I already work 80, and sometimes even 100 hours in a week developing new material. The less time I have to spend on projects that already work as is, the better. The last time I checked, important linux distros used in industry (Cent, Suse, etc) all still included legacy gcc3 development support. If you think about the investment in gcc3 based code that is out there, and the time that could be required to port that to gcc4, keeping the legacy support makes allot of sense.

When gcc4 first came out, I tried moving. I was able to get my code to compile and link after making allot of changes to the header files, but I got different numerical answers on my data for some cases. This is the real bugbear. When you change compilers, everything has to be QC'd again. I tried again with gcc4.3, and found again that many header files had changed and it took quite a bit of work to get it to compile. When I did get it to work, I now got the same numerical answers as with gcc3. This underscores some of the issues that can happen when you change compilers, especially if the compiler is a relatively new version. Imagine some of the disasters that could have happened if I based research on the incorrect values from software compiled under the early versions of gcc4!!! There have also been allot of issues with folks trying to compile f77 code under gfortran.

In many cases, there is just no good reason to move compilers when you have mature src code that has been optimized and QC'd for 30+ years. Why would you want to put ANY time into maintaining such code? That is not a rhetorical question, so if there are some good reasons to move to newer versions of gcc, I would be interested in hearing the arguments. Putting in time to revise code and end up with the identical assembler is not something I am all that interested in.

Was there some particular reason to physically remove the gcc-3 bin from my cygwin install? What would have been the harm in leaving it there, since I already had it installed? I think that many cygwin users would find it useful to have the gcc3 packages included in the cygwin package manager, even if they are in the obsolete section.

If the packages still exist and can be installed manually, I would love to know where to find the packages and documentation. If I have to build it from src, that is fine to, but some documentation would really be helpful there as well.

Thanks

LMH




Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote:
On 8/19/2013 1:27 PM, LMH wrote:
I recently tried to update my cygwin install and discovered I had to
change
to the setup-x86.exe package for the update to work. After finishing the
update, I see that some binaries have been removed from my install. Which
g++-3 and which g77-3 now return no findings and those compilers
appear to
have been removed from the package manager. There are some g77 listings
under the _obsolete category, but those are version 4.5-4.7. I very much
still need gcc3, so I would appreciate some information on how I can
add it
back in.

gcc-3 and friends are desperately old and have been only grudgingly
included in the "recent" past to support building 'setup.exe'.  But it's
been a while now since 'setup.exe' required gcc-3.  Obviously, it is in
your interest to step away from gcc-3 as well.  If you absolutely cannot do
that for some reason, check your favorite search engine for the "Cygwin
Time Machine" to take a trip back into Cygwin's past.  Or generate your
own blast from the past by building gcc-3 yourself.


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