[fpc-devel] FPC on SPARC revisited

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

Just a brief note to congratulate the core developers on their delivery of 
2.2.0, and to report that it appears to have fixed some longstanding problems 
on Linux/SPARC.

I'm continuing to test on Linux 2.6 (Sparc-64, Debian "Etch") and also for 
interest and completeness on 2.2 (Sparc-32, Debian "Woody"). Is there anything 
that I can usefully contribute to help get this to a regularly-built binary 
release?

Noting that somebody else raised the issue of compilation problems on SPARC 
(and other platforms) a few days ago it might be worthwhile recapping the 
situation as I left it (more detail in my note of 23rd August).

Allowing that 2.0.0 is available as a binary release for SPARC (including as a 
package in the standard Debian distribution):

-----8<-----
* 2.0.0 appears OK on sparc-linux [can compile itself].

* 2.0.2 is broken in some way on sparc-linux: won't compile [using 2.2.0].

* 2.0.4 fails tmt1 on sparc-linux, something wrong in pthreads [compiled with 
2.2.0].

* 2.1.4 has known code-generation problems and fails tmt1 on sparc-linux.
----->8-----

As somebody noted a few days ago 2.0.0 won't build 2.2.0 directly. It will, 
however, build 2.0.4 and even though this appears to have a threads problem it 
appears to be safe to install. Once installed 2.0.4 can be used to compile 
2.2.0, 2.2.0 will run its test set to completion although it might need to be 
installed first to expunge all references to older versions of the compiler 
and libraries.

I notice that on both Linux/x86 and Linux/SPARC the 2.2.0 fp IDE can't 
disassemble code at a breakpoint, this works with 2.0.0. Has this been fixed 
in the development version or is it worth my while investigating?

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]