From: lecoat@atari.org   
      
   Hi,   
      
   Michael Schwingen writes:   
   > Francois LE COAT wrote:   
   >> I'll add that GNU/GCC 3 is suitable to build ATARI ST softwares.   
   >> GNU/GCC 4 is not, because it is too restrictive with its syntax,   
   >> but furthermore it doesn't implement 16bits libraries required   
   >> for ATARI ST softwares.   
   >   
   > Those are not *required*. Operating system calls do not need a special "int"   
   > size from the compiler - they should use uint16_t/uint32_t in the C library   
   > syscall implementation, which works just fine with any gcc version, and most   
   > OS calls I remember actually use 32-bit ints, not 16 bit. After all, the 68k   
   > CPU is (by architecture) a 32-bit machine.   
   >   
   > Good, *portable* C code should work as well when compiled with 32-bit ints,   
   > although it may run a bit slower and use more memory - how that is offset by   
   > the better optimizations of the new compiler would need to be checked in   
   > every case.   
   >   
   >> Thanks for your answers. The OS maintainers are making very strange   
   >> decisions breaking the backward compatibility with the ATARI ST !   
   >   
   > Which OS maintainers? The last OS version that was maintained was TOS 4.08.   
   >   
   > You are talking about one gcc package - you are free to take the source code   
   > and compile your own version with 16-bit integer support.  You are also free   
   > to take the 16 bit libraries and adapt them to compile with gcc4 (or better   
   > gcc5) - it can be done, I use gcc4 on 16-bit targets (avr) regularly.   
   >   
   > If noone stepped up and did just that until now, it does not mean it is   
   > impossible or someone decreed that 16-bit support should be dropped - just   
   > that noone wanted it enough to invest their own time.   
      
   Sorry, but we're not speaking of contemporary developments, but choices   
   of implementation done 30 years ago, when GNU foundation was just   
   created, and when there was no internet network. It's very easy to make   
   good choices of implementation (usage of integer type etc.) for   
   actual developers, taking into account about errors of the past   
   programmers. But if today's programmers are correctly developing in   
   C language, that's because developers like me made errors in the past.   
   The problem is that programs like Eureka 2.12 are now obsolete. It   
   represents a large part of softwares developed on ATARI ST hardware.   
      
   You would have been very clever if you had given me those advices   
   30 years ago. For the time being, there's nothing else I can do,   
   except being very sad my C sources are not supported anymore, alas.   
      
   Thanks for your answer.   
      
   Regards,   
      
   --    
   François LE COAT   
   Author of Eureka 2.12 (2D Graph Describer, 3D Modeller)   
   http://eureka.atari.org/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)