Re: Baby X is bor nagain

On 03/07/2024 08:08, David Brown wrote:

On 03/07/2024 02:23, bart wrote:

On 03/07/2024 00:58, Ben Bacarisse wrote:

bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>

On 02/07/2024 16:00, Ben Bacarisse wrote:

bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>

On 01/07/2024 13:09, Ben Bacarisse wrote:

bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>

Using products like tcc doesn't mean never using gcc. (Especially on Linux
where you will have it installed anyway.)

The parenthetical remark is wrong.

>
You mean it is possible for a Linux installation to not have gcc
preinstalled?

I mean that saying "on Linux ... you will have it installed anyway" is
wrong.
>

Sure, although in the dozen or two versions I've come across, it
always has been.

I'm not sure what you mean by a "version".  Every version (in the sense
of release number) of a source-only Linux distribution will have gcc
installed, but is that all you mean?  Source-only distributions are rare
and not widely used.

>
No I mean binary distributions (unless the install process silently
compiled from source; I've no idea).

>
Which ones?
>

>
I really, really don't remember. I've tinkered with Linux every so often for 20, maybe 25 years. You used to be able to order a job-lot of CDs with different versions. Few did much.
>
Then there were various ones I tried under Virtual Box. All had gcc.
>
I must have tried half a dozen, maybe more, on RPis. Those I know all had gcc too.  So did a laptop or two with Linux. As does WSL now.
>
I'm not sure what you're trying to do here.
>
I will admit that it might not be 100% certain that a Linux OS on a system on which someone is planning to run a C compiler will have gcc installed, although that is not my experience.
>
Will that do?

 In my experience, Linux distributions (which is a much more correct term than your "versions") rarely install gcc by default, unless they are source-based distributions.  But virtually all will have gcc available for easy installation from their repositories.  And they will pull it in automatically if the user installs something that requires it to run, or to install (such as some kinds of drivers that need to be matched to the kernel being used).
 So perhaps instead of insisting, incorrectly, that gcc is almost always installed on Linux, you could just say that gcc is almost always easily available, and move on.  (And perhaps it is so easily installed that you did so without noticing it on your systems.)

I remember exactly the same conversation a few months ago.
When a Windows machine reaches the end of its useful life as a Windows machine, I generally convert it to a Linux machine to get a bit more service from it, until inevitably it goes for recycling. And so I've installed Linux several times. But not recently. I haven't recently retired a Windiws machine, though my current machine won't run Windows 11, and so is due to retire, when I can bring myself to splash a thousand pounds or so on a new device.
And of course as a programming person I always want gcc and can't imagine a Unix-type system without a commandline C compiler. And I had a pretty clear memory that you got gcc by default. But other pepole say not, and you check a box as you install. And so I suppose it must be so.
--
Check out my hobby project.
http://malcolmmclean.github.io/babyxrc