Re: Report: compil error on OSX for target=i386

[Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko]

On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 10:31 PM, Robert Millan<address@hidden> wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 05, 2009 at 03:17:58PM +0200, Michal Suchanek wrote:
>>
>> Still the time and space required to build GCC is much larger than
>> that required for building grub. The OS X platform is somewhat exotic
>> because it uses different object format and non-gnu linker so it is
>> more likely there will be issues with building GCC. Since the time I
>> tried GCC is no longer self-containded but relies on additional
>> libraries that have to be installed separately so the user has to
>> compile several interdependent packages from source which certainly
>> requires more planning than just building a single package.
>
> Is there no simple mechanism for installing software on MacOS ?  E.g. on
> Debian one would just use apt-get.  I heard about the Fink project,
> although I haven't used it myself.
>
MacOSX has "software package" which is technically similar to .deb but
no repositories. Apple's gcc is shipped on installation DVDs and as
such is ready-available to the user.
>From third-hand reports I have an information that macports package
GCC but not GNU binutils. I made the whole apple 's CC port in
response to a report by potential developper than he didn't succeed to
install required packages even after long fiddling with macports
Ruby and autoconf is shipped as a part of normal development tools
package (available on OSX install DVD among other places)
>> The question here is if grub is supposed to be compatible with GNU
>> systems only
>
> We don't have this constraint.  It's fine to support non-GNU systems.  But
> as a GNU project, I think it's normal that some of our dependencies are
> GNU software.
>
Yes but you can't force user to install more GNU than he wants. If
supporting Apple's CC gets in the way of developpement I'll say
ditching its support is a natural step. But I don't ask to hold back
any code nor to test Every build with Apple's CC or maintain its
support. Just accept simple fixes for it if it doesn't affect other
systems


-- 
Regards
Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko

Personal git repository: http://repo.or.cz/w/grub2/phcoder.git