On 31 May 2010, at 11:56, Kostik Belousov wrote: > My main concern is the usefulness of HEAD for routine bug-fixing process. > > The proposed merge makes it relatively easy for users to start compiling > the system with CLang. Our HEAD userbase is one of the most valuable > project asset to ensure the quality of the system. After the support for > easy compilation with clang is imported, some substantial portion of the > HEAD users definitely start experimenting with it. This immediately makes > the bug reports against HEAD almost useless, since level of demotivation > when looking at the bug is immense. When you do know that the issue can > be in the compiler, and not the OS, why looking ? > > Any bug analisys now shall start with exchange to verify which compiler > was used to build the reporter system, and ask to reproduce it with gcc. > [I am talking not only about gnats, but also mailing list questions, > private pleas for help etc]. True enough, but that coin has two sides. Compiler bugs in gcc are probably just as hard to find as compiler bugs in clang, but if you have multiple compilers at your disposal you can determine that you're probably looking at a compiler bug instead of a FreeBSD bug. Especially once there are users running the same code compiled with gcc and with clang it should be /easier/ to determine whether it's a compiler bug or not. Seeing a "Y doesn't work for me compiled with clang" vs. "Y works for me compiled with gcc" or vice versa would mean that the problem is likely in one of the compilers. Now you're probably correct in saying that the number of compiler bugs you are likely to encounter /now/ would be higher in clang than in gcc, but there also have been a number of cases where clang found bugs in code that gcc didn't find. Whether you find that useful is up to you, you are the developers after all. Alban Hertroys -- Screwing up is an excellent way to attach something to the ceiling. !DSPAM:930,4c04de8b10155455914109!Received on Tue Jun 01 2010 - 08:18:53 UTC
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