Re: Baby X is bor nagain

On 29/06/2024 20:56, Michael S wrote:

On Sat, 29 Jun 2024 11:05:41 +0200
David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> wrote:
  It does not sound like you know what you are talking about.
Just download latest Arm MCU variant of TI CCS or of STM32 Cube and see.
They are free (like beer) and they are based on clang.
 

It is a very long time since I have used TI's ARM devices, and therefore its tools.  For STM, it was maybe a year or two ago.  There are many manufacturers of microcontrollers, and while I have used a fair number over the years, I don't use all the different ones all the time.  I also don't change development tools in existing projects.
If TI and STM have changed over to providing clang-based tools, that is interesting to know.  I will probably be working on a new STM32 project later this year.  So that's nice information to know.
It doesn't surprise me that some have moved to clang-based tools - I think it was inevitable.  And I think it is good to see some variety and competition.  But if the clang toolchains are not freely available in a device-independent fashion in the manner of the ARM-sponsored gcc toolchains, then it will be a big step backwards.  The last thing embedded developers want is more custom variant toolchains and vendor lock-in.  We used to have that - gcc let us escape from it.  A disadvantage of clang's license is that it lets vendors try that shit again.
So this is all very interesting, but it does not change the fact that gcc totally dominates for embedded development at the moment.  It does, however, mean the proportions may change significantly in the coming years.