[llvm-dev] unable to compile llvm with gcc 4.7.4

[Michael Kruse via llvm-dev]

2016-10-17 13:02 GMT+02:00 Sylvain Bertrand via llvm-dev
<llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>:
> The problem is modern c++. I can have a reasonable system boostrape-ed
> with (tinycc/alternative C compiler), but only in the gcc world since
> a modern c++ compiler is only bootsrape-able from near any C compiler
> there. clang and llvm are unable to do it. That why I would need to
> get 2 gccs: "any C compiler" -> gcc 4.7.4 -> gcc recent_version ->
> llvm.

"any C compiler" must have been bootstrapped some way as well. The
only compiler that doesn't need bootstrapping is one written in
machine code. That is, one compiles a statically-linked version of gcc
and copies it over to the new machine, assuming its ISA is
backwards-compatible.

If a modern compiler is required on the target machine, why not
cross-compiling it? There is (or should) be no reason why another
platform cannot generate the same binary result.

Michael