Talk:GCC Cross-Compiler

What does it Do?

After reading through part 1, i fail to see what is done that cannot be done by GCC before creation of this cross compiler. It seems to be a waste of time, and nothing is specified about the platform that can't be accomplished by all other versions of GCC. --Tyler 22:50, 15 March 2007 (CDT)

Either your answer is in GCC_Cross-Compiler#Why_an_OS_developer_should_build_a_cross-compiler, otherwise, could you please be more clear in what the problem is exactly? - Combuster 04:03, 16 March 2007 (CDT)

My problem is... this tutorial does not show you how to "solve" any of these problems. It tells you how to recompile GCC to make only ELF files... something GCC can do anyway, ridding you of the problems. --Tyler 08:25, 16 March 2007 (CDT)

The main difference is that the GCC you are building is a Stage 1 toolchain, not a bootstrapped toolchain. (Not ELF vs COFF like you think) A dedicated crosscompiler does not think its compiling for windows/linux and as such does not fill in the gaps for you. It does just what you ask and only what you ask and nothing more, which is something you cant say of a stock GCC. Some of these 'features' you can override with commandline parameters, but some will stubbornly persist. - Combuster 04:45, 19 March 2007 (CDT)

Actually, the main difference is that, to my knowlegde, Cygwin GCC doesn't allow you to generate ELF binaries without the help of objcopy. Several other problems - like careless inclusion of system headers, error messages being posted to the forum that cannot be reproduced by people using a different host OS, and more - are also solved by this tutorial. Solar 09:57, 3 April 2007 (CDT)

Like Solar says, Cygwin GCC can't create ELF binaries by default. Creating a cross compiler fixes that, and more, and is pretty easily done. - Quok 20:30, 3 April 2007 (CDT)