[Python-Dev] gcc versions (was:RE: Possible bug (was Re: some other junk, ...))

[Charles G Waldman]

Skip Montanaro writes:

 > This is on a Mandrake 7.1 system.  Here are the bits I think are relevant to
 > identify my environment:

 >     % gcc -v
 >     Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-mandrake-linux/2.95.3/specs
 >     gcc version 2.95.3 19991030 (prerelease)

AFAIK, this version of GCC was never "blessed" by the GCC maintainers
and should not be being used for any production work.  I think
Mandrake did a bad thing by shipping this version.  Not quite as bad
as what RedHat did by shipping the completely not-for-general-use
gcc-2.96, but nonetheless still a bad thing.  When will distribution
builders learn that having a higher version number is not necessarily
a good thing?  Why do they keep second-guessing the good advice of the
GCC Steering Committee?  Sigh...

In any case, I don't think we should put effort into chasing down bugs
that are caused by bogus C compilers.  Any reports coming in from
RedHat 7.0 users or Mandrake 7.1 need to be evaluated in this light.