Re: else ladders practice

Bart <bc@freeuk.com> wrote:

 
This seems to be a thing with Linux, where a big chunk of a C
implementation is provided by the OS.
 
That is, standard headers, libraries, possibly even 'as' and 'ld'
utilities. On Windows, C compilers tend to be self-contained (except for
Clang which appears to be parasitical: it used to piggy-back onto gcc,
then it switched to MSVC).

You know that at source level there are separate projects: gcc proper,
binutils and libc.  libc provides C library, however header should
be matched to the library, so libc also provides headers.

Linux has distributions, which beside bare OS provide a lot of packages.
Binary C library is used by almost all programs so is provided even
in minimal install.  Linux has package managers, so everyting you
install may be split into small packages, but for user it is just
knowing few crucial names, package manager will install all
dependencies.

AFAIK Windows alone does not have a package manager and you apparently
reject package managers provided by third parties.  So the only
viable approach is to install big bundle ("self-contained compiler").
There is also commercial aspect: even if this is free download
commercial entity normally does not want to pass "sales" to other
parties.  OTOH open source project cooperate and acknowledge
existence of other projects.

I'm not sure what the utility to compile C programs is called, if it is
not 'gcc'. But this is a C group, I would expect people to know it is a
C compiler, or the front end of one.
 
However I use 'gcc' in other forums and everyone knows what I mean.
 
What do /you/ call the C compiler that is invoked by gcc?

If you want to be technical you could say 'cc1'.  But usually
people know what you mean when you say 'gcc'.

--
                              Waldek Hebisch