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From: bart <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Baby X is bor nagain
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2024 16:44:10 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 02/07/2024 16:00, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
> 
>> On 01/07/2024 13:09, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>>> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> Using products like tcc doesn't mean never using gcc. (Especially on Linux
>>>> where you will have it installed anyway.)
>>> The parenthetical remark is wrong.
>>
>> You mean it is possible for a Linux installation to not have gcc
>> preinstalled?
> 
> I mean that saying "on Linux ... you will have it installed anyway" is
> wrong.
> 
>> Sure, although in the dozen or two versions I've come across, it
>> always has been.
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by a "version".  Every version (in the sense
> of release number) of a source-only Linux distribution will have gcc
> installed, but is that all you mean?  Source-only distributions are rare
> and not widely used.
> 

No I mean binary distributions (unless the install process silently 
compiled from source; I've no idea).

That fact is that if you take any ordinary Linux user, not even a 
developer, then the chances are high that gcc will be available. Do the 
same with Windows, and the chances are low.

On one project of mine that ran on Linux and had to invoke a C compiler, 
the default one it tried was gcc. I would have preferred tcc, but that 
was less likely to be installed. So they needed to use a '-tcc' option 
when it was.

If I did it now, I'd try tcc first anyway, and if that failed, to fall 
back to gcc. Perhaps with a message suggesting they get tcc, as a hint.