FreeTDS Development Group

[Steve Langasek <vorlon AT netexpress.net>]

On Sat, 19 May 2001, James K. Lowden wrote:

> That was very helpful, thanks.  I understand now.  Of course, every answer
> leads to a question (or so).

> What should the target be here, as far as FreeTDS is concerned?  What 
> advantage is it
> to you to use the Tru64 UNIX compiler instead of gcc?  Don't you use other 
> GPL
> software that requires gcc?  I'm not challenging you; I just don't get it.

The Tru64 compiler is much better at optimizing code for the Alpha
architecture than gcc currently is.  In fact, I consider that one of Tru64's
primary selling points over Linux at this point.

If the configure script that ships with FreeTDS doesn't work on Tru64, and
rerunning automake/autoconf on the target platform is sufficient to make it
work, then fixing this should be a simple matter of using a more recent
version of the autotools to generate the configure script that ships with
FreeTDS.  The autotools already have platform- and compiler-neutrality as a
goal, so chances are this problem has already been fixed in a newer version of
automake/autoconf.

Cheers,
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer