compilers on Lion

[Werner LEMBERG]

> If you try to avoid the troubles of installing a zillion compilers
> for the sake of installing poppler, what about switching to a super
> lightweight pplib (currently available only inside LuaTeX sources)?
> :) :) :)

I'm already using Emacs, I won't become an apostate :-)

> You can manually specify the compiler being used to compile a
> particular port.  [...]

Thanks for the explanations.  Meanwhile, I bit the bullet and let
macports install and compile whatever was necessary to get clang-6.0.
My knowledge (and interest) is too limited to fiddle around with the
intricate details.  After almost a day of compiling I got it...

>> OK.  BTW, I see on
>>
>>   https://libcxx.llvm.org/docs/UsingLibcxx.html#using-libc-with-gcc
>>
>> that gcc on MacOS actually *can* use libc++...
> 
> This means that someone would need to spend a bit of time to try to
> get it working correctly.

For developers and porters it might be worth the trouble IMHO.

> Apparently gcc8 fully supports C++11, but doesn't require a working
> C++11 compliant compiler to build (bootstrap?) itself.

Exactly.  It only needs C++98.

> (Maybe we should sometimes in fact allow using a bit more of gcc for
> bootstrapping purposes.)

At least for older platforms I second that – the clang people
themselves write that you can use gcc for bootstrapping.  However, it
is not me who is going to work on this.

>> And what about installing clang-7.0 instead of 5.0?  Will `port'
>> accept that for C++11 stuff as a default?
> 
> Yes.  The instructions were probably written when there was no newer
> clang compiler available.

I was told on this list some days ago that clang-7.0 is (still) too
new; clang-6.0 is thus preferred.


    Werner