not specifically MacPorts but tools-related

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Nov 22, 2007, at 16:11, paul beard wrote:

> On 11/22/07, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>
>> gcc_select should probably "never" be used. The system ships with a
>> default compiler (gcc 3.3 on Panther, gcc 4.0 on Tiger and Leopard)
>> and that should probably "never" be changed. Software that needs a
>> different compiler should specify that explicitly.
>>
>> Users who had used gcc_select to select a different compiler used to
>> experience all sorts of weird breakage with some MacPorts software.
>> Recently (1.5.2?), MacPorts was changed so that it doesn't matter
>> what the user has selected with gcc_select; MacPorts will use gcc 3.3
>> on Panther and 4.0 on Tiger and Leopard unless the portfile specifies
>> something different using configure.compiler. This is a good thing.
>>
>> Apple's gcc 3.3 only builds PowerPC binaries, so it's not suitable
>> for use on Intel Macs.
>
> Is the gcc_select in MacPorts any better?
>
>  gcc_select                     @0.1            sysutils/gcc_select
>
> gcc_select 0.1, sysutils/gcc_select (Variants: universal, darwin_7,  
> darwin_8_ppc, darwin_8_i386)
> http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/users/mww/select/
>
> gcc_select lets you switch the default compiler. It symlinks the  
> standard compiler executables in the MacPorts prefix to the  
> selected version.

I assume the only practical difference between MacPorts gcc_select  
and Apple gcc_select is that Apple gcc_select only lets you select  
Apple-installed compilers, while MacPorts lets you (additionally?)  
select MacPorts-installed compilers.