Re: [avr-gcc-list] avr-g++ (4.2.2) and exceptions

[David Brown]

Kövesdi György wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I use C++ for my AVR projects, and everything works well. Sometimes I would 
> need to throw an exception, but it seems not ready yet. The compiler creates 
> the necessary tables (with the option -fexceptions), but the linker script 
> puts the section .gcc_except_table to wrong place, and I could not find the 
> library libsupc++, which seems necessary for exceptions.
> Does anybody know more information about it (or help me to build that missing 
> library)?
>
> Thanks in advance
> K. Gy.

As far as I understand it, there is no exceptions support in avrgcc at 
the moment.  None of the maintainers use C++ or are particularly 
knowledgeable about it, and there is relatively little interest from 
users at the moment (people mostly see C++ as a language for "big" 
processors).  Thus there is no port of the C++ libraries.  However, the 
compiler has inherited the C++ language almost automatically since it is 
standard for gcc.

So parts of C++ that need library support, such as exceptions, will not 
work.  new and delete are not (AFAIK) implemented, but it's easy enough 
to write your own versions if you want them (but static or stack 
allocation is almost always preferred in small embedded systems anyway). 
 Language features, such as classes, overloaded functions, templates, 
etc., should all work fine.  Support for global constructors (and 
destructors, if your program is supposed to stop) is in place.  I 
believe all the C library headers have the appropriate extern "C" wrappers.

If you do get anywhere with getting exceptions to work, remember that 
avr-gcc is in need of a C++ maintainer.  Failing that, if you collect 
useful information about porting the C++ libraries, then I'm sure there 
will be people interested in hearing about it.

mvh.,

David