Upgrading at last!

[Joel Sherrill]

> I am about to begin rebuilding my development environment.  So far, I
> have installed the "Linux Universe" version. It's the UNIFIX version.
> 
> This version comes with gcc 2.7.2.1 as the stock compiler.
> 
> Should I replace this with egcs prior to building the cross-compiler? or
> , should I just look at the egcs as source for a cross-compiler build? (
> In all previous cross-compiler builds, I always built the latest C
> compiler first.)
> 
> Should I also install the cpp-libs?

Locally we use Redhat and have been using it very seriously since 4.1.  By
seriously I mean that we have run it on dual processor machines supporting
multiple users with a project actually depending on that machine staying
alive and healthy. :)

As a rule we never upgrade anything shipped with an OS version unless it
bites us.  I am using gcc 2.7.2 in a gnat 3.09 installation.  Both of
those are quite old at this point.  I do not do C++ programming so have
never run into any problems.  If we need to upgrade much, lately we have
just bought another machine with more horespower and moved. :)  That last
time we did this we went from a Dual PPro/200 to a dual P2/300.  It was
only about a US$5K machine with Linux preinstalled.

So my rule of thumb is don't upgrade the native compiler unless you have
to.

--joel