MinGW GCC 4.2.1

[thomas]

Where are we going?

I'm seeing countless threads discussing things that do not work with MinGW-GCC4.2.1, starting from compilation problems, debugger problems, warnings, and whatever. Large scale modifications are being made to the Code::Blocks sources to remove warnings, which honestly, are sometimes just silly. I keep saying to myself: "What the hell is going on...".

Please note that

• the GCC 4.2 Release Series is an in-development product
• gcc 4.2.1 is already obsoleted by 4.2.2 (which fixes 279 bugs and regressions) for a month
• MinGW project explicitely labels the gcc 4.2 release a "technology preview"

How can we expect an in-development release to work seamlessly without problems, and why do we need to go through great pain to make something work with this particular experimental release, which may change again next week?
It's beyond me, sorry

The next step would be to start worrying about compiling something with wxWidgets-CVS and a GCC4.3 nightly snapshot.

[orel]

I totally agree with that, i tried myself to debug a windows dll compiled by gcc 4.2.1  : impossible to make gdb stops at any braekpoints located in the dll, and by googling about that, i haven't find any threads talking about a solution for this.
If ever it was the only problem for the moment with gcc 4.2.1, this is not a small one.

[killerbot]

well, I have to say, all issues I have had, NONE of them is to blame 4.2.1, but all to blame is CB :-(
I had issues on a fresh install, WHY : because CB doesn't recognize the masterpath correctly [or not all code tries the path without stripping of the \bin in case it would already be present]!!

And yesterday I couldn't debug at all on windows : WHY : because of CB (rev 4584).

So thanks to the 4.2.1 trial-trip issued of CB got fixed and another one is pinpointed.

The question is : what kind of issues will pop up with 4.2.1 ??

Note that on linux most distributions are already on that version or even newer.
Secondly, if we have to wait till MinGW will finally ever release a new version, I am afraid we will be at CB 3.4 (for sure keeping in mind our rate of releases ;-) ). hey, 3.4.5 was still a technology preview or beta or whatever they call it for years now. I didn't see an new version with fixes or an official release of that version.
In the beginning people also said here on these boards 3.4.5 was bad, well have been using it for a very long time now, haven't had any issues [or I didn't see them].

[jarro_2783]

I've never had a problem with 3.4.5 so I don't see any point making it work with anything newer if you're having so many problems.

[thomas]

Personally, I think GCC 4.2 is great (using the MinGW build myself), but people have to realize what it is, and what it is not.
It is a release with many known (and unknown) issues that is still under development. It is not a finished product. It is not for production use.

Thus, you cannot expect everything to work seamlessly, and if it bites you, then that's just normal.
Some things it does are unpleasant, some are wrong, and some things are just silly, but this will (hopefully) be improved with time.