Anders Magnusson's BSD-licensed pcc compiler has been imported into NetBSD's pkgsrc and OpenBSD's src tree. Anders wrote to NetBSD's tech-toolchain list: "It is not yet bug-free, but it can compile the i386 userspace. The big benefit of it is that it is fast, 5-10 times faster than gcc, while still producing reasonable code. The only optimization added so far is a multiple-register-class graph-coloring register allocator, which may be one of the best register allocators today. Conversion to SSA format is also implemented, but not yet the phi function. Not too difficult though, after that strength reduction is high on the list."
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Member since:2006-07-15
Member since:2005-07-08
Yeah, it's good to see so many people dedicating so much time to the crucial task of rewriting GPL tools with a BSD license. First it was some basic GNU tools like tar etc, now the compiler. It's clearly what the free BSDs need right now. And its users! How I could live using a GPLed compiler up today?
Edited 2007-09-15 20:39
Member since:2005-07-06
Yeah, it's good to see so many people dedicating so much time to the crucial task of rewriting GPL tools with a BSD license. First it was some basic GNU tools like tar etc, now the compiler.
I thought that myself for about 3 seconds, the competition will be a good thing.
Member since:2007-09-04
The PCC is not related to OpenBSD team. The maintainer of compiler is NetBSD developer, however the PPC project is separate from BSDs: http://www.ludd.ltu.se/~ragge/pcc/
Of course, this might change after importing to the OpenBSD userland.
Member since:2005-10-18
Member since:2005-08-26
Member since:2006-07-15
Member since:
2005-07-23
Even if it doesn't generate as fast binaries as gcc does yet it's still nice to see how dedicated (mostly the OpenBSD?) people are to rewrite tools under a BSD license there only GPL alternatives have been available earlier.