Re[2]: [avr-gcc-list] Experimental WinAVR/avr-gcc update for Win32 systems

[Stephan Eisvogel]

On Tuesday, August 19, 2003, 2:44:09 PM, E. Weddington wrote:
> Hi, I'm the guy that puts together WinAVR. I know it's a bit outdated, and
> I've been in the process of putting together a new release. My biggest
> problem has been time! Specifically work has been incredibly busy for the
> last few months. Also GCC and other projects have been in flux for the
> last few months and only recently has settled down.

Hi Eric,

Don't talk to me about time, I have exams coming up myself RSN. :-o

I understand that some projects are constantly changing, but not being
able  to  put  out  a  release  for WinAVR is usually a sign that this
project  has  no  stable/unstable branches. In that case you are stuck
between  "less  bugs"  and  "more  features and probably more bugs and
brokeness" for users.

In  my  case I saw erratic code behaviour in my project and decided to
give gcc 3.3.1 a chance. And no more crashes after tonight...

> If you're interested (and have the time) I would be glad of some help.

Duh people have been trying hard to bog down the FreeBSD apache here.

> Specifically:
> 1. What are the info_fix (binutils, gcc) and combine_fix patches? Can you
> send them to me as well? If these fix particular GCC bugs, which bugs?
> 2. Are you building GCC any differently? (Patches, etc.)

I  have  put  all  the patches used into the web directory. I've built
toolchains for NEC's V850E processor at work and saw some of the usual
"-O2"  stuff  while  compiling AVR's libgcc2.a, I'll rerun the compile
and look for stuff that could use a little bit of tweaking.

> FYI, in the next WinAVR release, I will have to use binutils 2.13.2.1
> because of the AVR COFF patch written by Jörg Wunsch. Will the info_fix
> patch apply to this version?

This  is  just  documentation stuff, easy to adapt I would say. Better
yet,  help  Jörg put the patches into 2.14. (assuming you are a QUERTY
user, how you got the ö umlaut into that email anyway. ;)

The  avr_coff  stuff  is  NOT integrated into last night's package, so
that  will need some work. I'll look into it, that was some unintended
feature degradation.

> And of course WinAVR will contain the new avr-libc 1.0 release.

1.0 is afaik not released yet.

> Other tasks that need to be done for the new release:
> 1. avrdude: make sure that recent patches are in and built. New version
> cut.

I  use  ponyprog2000  via  a script and makefile (ie. "make isp") so I
can't help with that.

> 2. New GDB 6.0 built. (Check to see if even released yet.)

GCC  and  my project is not buggy and big enough to warrant using GDB,
so that would be someone's job who actually uses this.

> 3. New avarice built. See if there will be an "official" release (Hi, Ted
> and David)

No ICE here (except me hehe), see 1. and 2.

> 4. Get new SRecord utils built (currently has problems.)

I've  not needed this so far, I flash using Intel hex files. Has to be
fixed by someone who actually uses it, too.

Later,
--se