Re: KEil bought by ARM

Chris Hills <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

<SNIP>

> SO lets get this straight.
>
> To build an old version of the open source compiler you need to archive
> the old version AND all the tools needed to build it AND any tools
> needed to build them etc.
>
> BTW having build from source code a compiler how do you test and PROVE
> is is the same one you built before and how do you validate it?
>
> All the decent commercial compiler suites are rigorously tested and
> validated against industry standard and accepted validation suites.
>
> What do you use to test and validate the open source compiler you have
> just built? You have to show that it IS the EXACTLY same tool that was
> validated (I hope) previously. How do you do this and PROVE that the
> source has not been modified?

You don't *need* to be able to *build* the compiler, you can still
just archive the binaries, in the same way that you would for a
commercial compiler. Having the source is an *additional* benefit, in
that there is then the possibility of running the compiler on
different platforms where the binary might not have run.

> OR
>
> You could archive the commercial compiler you used at the time.
>
> Excluding the dongle IF the commercial compiler will not run on the
> modern OS then neither will the open source version for the same
> reasons.
>
> The only problem is the dongle. Most compiler vendors will crack their
> own system to use a current dongle if that is required.

IAR did not do this for me. We have a product that is now not
maintained for this reason. We use gcc for everything, now.

> How do you qualify, validate and test the open source tools to the same
> standards as the commercial tools? You use Plum-Hall, Perennial or
> similar perhaps?

My experience is that gcc has had less bugs than the commercial
compilers I have used. My IAR8051 could not even take the address of a
function!

At any rate 99.99% of the bugs in my software are due to me, not the
compiler :(

--

John Devereux
.

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