[nycbug-talk] hand wringing

[Sunny Dubey]

On Sunday 02 May 2004 09:16 pm, Pete Wright wrote:

> that's really interesting.  i've been very interested in Xcode, but have
> not had a chance to check it out.  what other alternative compilers
> could apple use to get away from gcc?  does ibm produce a compiler that
> apple could adopt on the ppc64 chip?

Yes and no

my interest in the POWER architecture has led me to this knowldege ....

Yes because IBM understands PPC like its no-one's business, and because XLC 
(the actual compiler suite) has been customized for OS-X by IBM (and some 
other company, whos name escapes me).  The compiler is somewhat expensive, 
propiertary, and obviously lacks all the advantages of a FLOSS app.  Yet it 
is compatible with the GNU, and supports PPC64 much better than gcc does.

OTOH Apple has a great number of reasons not to switch.  The primary being 
that all the FLOSS code Apple takes is written and tested under the GNU 
tools.  Therefore using another compiler would only add to the variables of 
possible bug sources.

Sunny Dubey