GDC ARM beta #1 (with binary releases!)

[Rikki Cattermole]

On Monday, 17 March 2014 at 14:07:13 UTC, Johannes Pfau wrote:
> I'm happy to announce the first GDC ARM beta on behalf of the 
> GDC
> team :)
>
> ARM support is now at a point where the automated tests (test 
> suite,
> unit tests) pass and we're ready for feedback from real world 
> usage.
> All changes have been fully integrated into the standard GDC 
> sources
> which also means we're currently using the 2.064 frontend. ARM 
> support
> is currently limited to ARM/GNU Linux, i.e. GlibC. (This 
> especially
> means Android and bare metal programming are not officially 
> supported).
>
> Please report all bugs to
> http://bugzilla.gdcproject.org/
>
> If you're sure that the bug is a bug in phobos/druntime/DMD 
> frontend
> and not GDC specific please report it to
> https://d.puremagic.com/issues
>
> ==== Getting the ARM beta ====
>
> * All necessary code changes have been merged into Druntime, 
> Phobos and
>   GDC and you can simply get the latest GDC sources and build 
> them on
>   ARM. ( http://wiki.dlang.org/GDC/Installation/Generic )
> * GDC is also part of the official Archlinux ARM repositories. 
> To get
>   GDC for Archlinux ARM, simply use these commands:
>       pacman -S gdc libgphobos-devel
>   You can also get dub on Archlinux ARM by executing
>       pacman -S dub
>   Many thanks to Dicebot for maintaining the Archlinux packages.
> * We provide binary cross compilers for windows X86 (32/64bit) 
> and Linux
>   x86 (32/64bit). We also provide 'native' compilers which run 
> directly
>   on ARM machines.
>   http://gdcproject.org/downloads/
>   Note: Linux distribution packages or building from source 
> should be
>   preferred.
>
>
> ==== Precompiled GDC binaries ====
>
> Precompiled toolchains are available for ARM hardfloat and ARM
> softfloat systems. These toolchains target systems with 
> relatively
> recent glibc and linux kernel (GlibC >= 2.14, Linux >= 2.6.32).
>
> To check if you need the hard- or softfloat version run gcc -v 
> where
> gcc is a working gcc for your ARM target. Then look for 
> --with-float=
> in the output: --with-float=soft <==> softfloat
> --with-float=hard <==> hardfloat
>
> --with-float=softfp:
> We have no special binaries for these systems. Either compile 
> GDC from
> sources or use the softfloat binaries. The softfloat binaries 
> should
> work in 99% of all cases. The only known exception is using 
> floating
> point functions in fibers, a 'softfp' toolchain is required in 
> this
> case.
>
>
> To compile for ARM simply use this gdc executable:
> ./arm-gdcproject-linux-gnueabi[hf]/bin/arm-gdcproject-linux-gnueabi[hf]-gdc
>
> Note: The toolchain directories are write protected. If you 
> want to
> change this, use chmod +w -R arm-gdcproject-linux-gnueabi[hf].
>
> For more information on how to use additional libraries with 
> the cross
> compilers, see
> http://crosstool-ng.org/hg/crosstool-ng/raw-file/e11a8a2e225d/docs/5%20-%20Using%20the%20toolchain.txt
>
> ==== Known issues ====
>
> Known ARM-specific issues
> * std.internal.math.gammafunction.d is not ported yet (Help 
> here is
>   very appreciated!)
> * Array ops are evaluated in reverse order (WIP, FE 2.065)
>   http://bugzilla.gdcproject.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8
>
> Known issues with the binary builds
> * If you extract 7z files and are asked if you want to 
> overwrite files,
>   answer yes (toolchains are built on case sensitive 
> filesystems,
>   extracting on case insensitive filesystems will cause this 
> warning)
> * Use the arm-...-gdc.exe executables and not 
> bin/arm.../gdc.exe.
> * Unfortunately there's no multilib support for now. We use
>   crosstool-NG to build these toolchains and multilib support in
>   crosstool-NG is broken. However, this might change in the 
> next few
>   months.

I just want to say, thank you for all of your hard work. For 
those who have gotten gdc to this point.
And I'll definitely be looking forward to seeing support for 
Android!