[hbent]

Forget 5.3, I don't care about your shared libraries, I don't care about your modern compiler support, I want to hear from IRIX 4 USERS.

(roxo:/usr/local/src) # uname -a
IRIX roxo 4.0.5H 03051335 IP20

I want to hear about BACKPORTING TO IRIX GL.

I want to hear about BUS CONTENTION ON YOUR 4D/480VGXT

I want to hear about WHERE IRIX 4.0.5J IS

hit me one time:
(roxo:/usr/local/src) # /usr/local/gcc33/bin/gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/local/gcc33/lib/gcc-lib/mips-sgi-irix4.0.5H/3.3.6/specs
Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr/local/gcc33 --disable-nls --disable-shared --enable-static --disable-multilib --disable-threads --enable-languages=c --with-as=/usr/bin/as --without-gnu-as --with-ld=/usr/bin/ld --without-gnu-ld
Thread model: single
gcc version 3.3.6


Oh, it compiles programs.  I didn't post the 3.4.6 output because it doesn't work yet.  But we're going to get closer, going backwards?
(roxo:/usr/local/src) # /usr/local/gcc32/bin/gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/local/gcc32/lib/gcc-lib/mips-sgi-irix4.0.5H/3.2.3/specs
Configured with: ../configure --disable-nls --disable-shared --enable-static --disable-silent-rules --prefix=/usr/local/gcc32 --disable-multilib --disable-threads --enable-languages=c,c++,f77 --with-as=/usr/bin/as --without-gnu-as --with-ld=/usr/bin/ld --without-gnu-ld --enable-obsolete
Thread model: single
gcc version 3.2.3


Yeah, c++ works, fortran works, we're still getting the optimized assembler, LET'S GO.

---

Oh hey wait I forgot:

(aelfric:~) # mips-sgi-irix4-gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=mips-sgi-irix4-gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/local/libexec/gcc/mips-sgi-irix4/7.2.0/lto-wrapper
Target: mips-sgi-irix4
Configured with: ../configure --target=mips-sgi-irix4 --enable-languages=c,fortran --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --disable-libssp --disable-nls --with-stabs
Thread model: single
gcc version 7.2.0 (GCC)

That works too. Cross compile yr heart out bitches

[Raion]

So how did you get GCC 7 working?

Furthermore, with IRIX 4.x as?

[hbent]

Very carefully.  MIPS as is actually an optimizing assembler, unlike the GNU assembler that just does its job and dumps out an object.  So if you have the choice, use the MIPS toolchain for assembling and linking.  I do as much compilation as possible with the 3.10.1 MIPS compilers, but they need strict ANSI C89 and sometimes you just have to fall back to gcc.  Certainly for C++, the CFRONT based compiler for IRIX 4 is pretty pathetic, anything modern will have to rely on G++ and at the moment I only have that working up to 3.2.3.  I have all the basic GNU tools done, Perl up to a usable level (5.20), Python 3.6 is almost there (and probably would be done if I wasn't insisting on using the MIPS compiler), but it's time to get fun!  We need real apps!

Backporting GTK 1 to IRIX 4 (well, X11R4): done.  So you can have ugly stuff like GIMP 1.2.  But I want more.  MORE!

[Raion]

IRIX 4 and 5.x compiler situation certainly isn't great, that's where GCC probably makes the most sense. Where is all of this work with building out IRIX 4.x being kept?

[miod]

MIPS as is actually an optimizing assembler, unlike the GNU assembler that just does its job and dumps out an object.

I'm afraid you're wrong. All MIPS assembler have to be optimizing assemblers, by design, as the MIPS assembly directives explicitly allow the assembler to reorder instructions in order to benefit as much as possible from the delay slots (unless you use .set noreorder). The GNU assembler will allow try to expand the various instruction-like macros (la, li, etc) as the shortest possible sequence of instructions.

[hbent]

MIPS as is actually an optimizing assembler, unlike the GNU assembler that just does its job and dumps out an object.

I'm afraid you're wrong. All MIPS assembler have to be optimizing assemblers, by design, as the MIPS assembly directives explicitly allow the assembler to reorder instructions in order to benefit as much as possible from the delay slots (unless you use .set noreorder). The GNU assembler will allow try to expand the various instruction-like macros (la, li, etc) as the shortest possible sequence of instructions.

That's true but not not really in the spirit of my argument.  Yes, the GNU assembler will expand macros - it has to.  It can reorder instructions otherwise, but in my experience it generally doesn't.  The IRIX assembler is a two-pass assembler that has measurable performance gains over the GNU assembler, at least on IRIX 4.

---

IRIX 4 and 5.x compiler situation certainly isn't great, that's where GCC probably makes the most sense. Where is all of this work with building out IRIX 4.x being kept?

Ha, the IRIX 5 compiler is well ahead of the IRIX 4 compiler in real-world use - it doesn't force you to use casts every time your pointer argument types don't match.

And it's being kept... on my hard drive?  If anyone shows up and says, "hey, I've got an IRIX 4 system and I'm interested in xxx" then I'd be happy to work with them to achieve that goal, up to and including providing a finished package.  Otherwise it's not really worth my time to package a bunch of software that no one but me is going to use.

[Raion]

I'm not going to debate the merits of one assembler over the other because I pretty much just use whichever one the build requires on more extant IRIX iterations.

That being said it sounds like the compiler support is warranted enough that GCC might be the only option for the foreseeable future unless sufficient emulation interest in these older models comes around. If and when that happens I'm rather sure that there might be renewed interest in other compilers.

All of that said I think this work is pretty cool even though I myself have no use for it. If you end up packaging any of it I would be more than happy to host it!

[Raion]

How were tardists made on old IRIX if there wasn't swpkg?

Moreover, apparently since 4D1 3.x there's been inst, so apparently IRIX 4 has it too?

[jan-jaap]

How were tardists made on old IRIX if there wasn't swpkg?

Moreover, apparently since 4D1 3.x there's been inst, so apparently IRIX 4 has it too?

IRIX has always used inst to install packages. But before IRIX 5.x the gendist tool to create install images wasn't released outside SGI, so everybody else just used tar files.

You cannot use IRIX 5.3 gendist to create something that IRIX 4.x and older will install. There's no backwards compatibility flag or something. IRIX 3 inst images weren't even compressed.

There are some bits of 'inst' or 'gendist' code in http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/SGI/iris/3.7_src.tar.Z It may be possible to use that as inspiration to create a gendist clone for older IRIX versions.

[Raion]

Ah, so it wasn't ever released huh?