Re: [ros-dev] Re: [ros-diffs] [chorns] 19566: Speed upcompilationofntoskrnl

[Ged Murphy]

Casper Hornstrup wrote:
>     
> >   -----Original Message-----
> >  From: ros-dev-bounces(a)reactos.org [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Alex
> > Ionescu
> >  Sent: 26. november 2005 05:40
> >  To: ReactOS Development List
> >  Subject: Re: [ros-dev] Re: [ros-diffs] [chorns] 19566: Speed upcompilationofntoskrnl
> >
> >  Casper Hornstrup wrote:
> >
> >      
> > >   I will be strongly against supporting MSVC and
> > > any environments other than MinGW
> > >  because then it's more trouble than it's worth.
> > >
> > >         
> >  So I guess you also think the same about
> >  1) KDBG builds
> >  2) DBG = 0 builds
> >  3) MP builds.
> >
> >  I never added MP or KDBG (Blight did, for the latter), so I should be
> >  strongly against supporting it, right?
> >
> >  I understand what you mean (ie: if I want to support ReactOS on my
> >  toaster, I shouldn't force other devs to support it too), but I hope you
> >  realized how my position about KDBG/MP sounded really absurd! They are
> >  features used by a non-insignificant portion of users AND they are also
> >  a good place to find core bugs. A bug in the MP kernel means its
> >  probably there in UP too, are we just going to ignore it? A bug in
> >  exception handling might only show up in a feature inside KDBG.
> >
> >      
> >  I think it's stupid.
> >       
>  If I wanted to support the Watcom compiler tomorrow, would you verify
>  your changes for compatibility with this compiler? No, I don't think you
>  would want to. So I don't see why it would be stupid to have maintainers
>  (in this case me) make sure ReactOS continues to support a particular
>  environment.
>     
I think the difference here though, is that one day the msvc compiler 
may be more popular for building ROS than the mingw compiler. The Watcom 
compiler will (probably) never be in this situation. Thus I do think 
it's wise to try and keep full compatability between both mingw and msvc.

As Steven said, the mingw compiler will always need to be the default 
compiler as it's the only one we know will stay free, but I do think the 
msvc compiler will surpass it in terms of choice as it's features 
greatly assist development. Especially as we now support (to some 
extent) VS 2005, and some devs are making the switch.

I now check all my code on both compilers before submitting. It only 
takes an extra minute or so.