Re: [avr-gcc-list] Installing WinAVR 20070122 broke older 3.4.5install?

[Joerg Wunsch]

As Eric Weddington wrote:

> > It's a bit counterintuitive that GCC prefers the Windows registry key
> > over an environment variable.  ...

> It's only counterintuitive because your used to Unix. On Unix,
> environment variables are the norm.

No, environment variables are the *override* over the builtin features
(which still works in GCC, on both systems).  However, even though the
system administration can set me an environment variable (thus
overriding the builtin preferences), I as the mortal user still have
the option to change that variable to my liking before running the
tool.  This is no longer possible in a Win32 GCC installation when the
system administration has forced the registry key, as GCC does not
query the environment at all then.  Thus, the user stands no chance
overriding the admin's opinion.

OK, you might call that logical in a Windows environment, see Vista
and all its discussions about "security", "digital rights" etc., where
the operating system now even reserves the right to delete your files
without asking you if they are considered a security threat.
However, we are talking about GNU software here, so it's my opinion
the user should always have the last word.  So it would sound more
logical to use the following sequence:

. if the environment specifies a prefix, use it
. if not, but the registry specifies a prefix, use that one
. if all else fails, use the builtin prefix

(On Unix systems, only 1 and 3 apply.  As outlined above, 1 can easily
get system-wide as well as user-specific values there.)

-- 
cheers, J"org               .-.-.   --... ...--   -.. .  DL8DTL

http://www.sax.de/~joerg/                        NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)