cat -v harmful stuff

GCC - God-awful Compiler Crap

op-ti-mize [verb (trans.)]* … (gcc) to modify executable code so that it fails more quickly.


I’m always ready to suspect gcc since it has been a cause of so much trouble in the past.

-- Ron Minnich, main author of CoreBoot and LinuxBIOS.

gcc - the best argument for non-determinism ever

-- aiju

List:       openbsd-misc
Subject:    Re: /etc/mk.conf
From:       Theo de Raadt <deraadt () cvs ! openbsd ! org>
Date:       2005-04-07 1:24:51
Message-ID: 200504070124.j371Opsq031199 () cvs ! openbsd ! org

> > i am ussing current compiled with these options for some time now, and
> > everything is just OK,
> 
> and how much faster is it?  have many more widgets can you pump out in an 
> hour?
> 
> as a reference, the last time i played with said options, i wound up with 
> a gcc that couldn't compile anymore.

and the further you get from i386, the more bugs you run into.

as you crank up the options, all the other architectures, from vax (dig
in the tree for the ifdefs), to sparc, to sparc64 (a few more), to alpha
(even more), to mips64 (oh my), even up into arm (of course), even amd64,
and then as mickey just found out hppa64 spitting out garbage FP instructions
for integer only operations...

anyone who does this is not just mad, or crazy, or playing, they are
plain flat out stupid.

i count gcc as being, on the low end, 400,000 lines of code per architecture.

which will have bugs.  let's call it the 1 bug that matters per 10 lines of
code, naw, let's be kind.  let's call it 1 bug that matters per 25
lines of code.

that's 16,000 bugs.

99% of the user community finds their way through that swamp of bugs
by using the default.  that is what gets tested, and that is what gets
fixed.

some bugs relate to gcc crashing, others to gcc generating wrong code
(by the way, our experience is that it is WAY EASIER to get "gcc
to generate wrong code"....) 

now you wish to go fiddling with choices, and getting yourself into a
mess.

it is people like who who give a bad name to people with mental
deficiencies.

... perfectly well trained people, who can send email, who think they
can run a computer, even probably have a drivers license, but no, it
is people like you are DOWNRIGHT DANGEROUS, because you wouldn't know
a safe choice if it hit you flat in the face, and you will ALWAYS push
every button available to you because you have fooled yourself into
believing that is LEARNING, that is ADVANCEMENT

retards.

Alternatives to GCC

GDB

While not directly related to GCC, another abominable piece of the GNU toolchain.

GDB is deterrence strategy debugger. With GDB programmer is just more careful while coding so that use of GDB is not necessary.” – Branimir Karadžić