[dmd-internals] default dmd target == debdmd?

[Steve Schveighoffer]

----- Original Message ----
> From: Don Clugston <dclugston at googlemail.com>
> To: Discuss the internals of DMD <dmd-internals at puremagic.com>
> Sent: Fri, August 27, 2010 4:27:13 PM
> Subject: Re: [dmd-internals] default dmd target == debdmd?
> 
> On 27 August 2010 17:28, Steve Schveighoffer <schveiguy at yahoo.com>  wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message  ----
> >> From: Don Clugston <dclugston at googlemail.com>
> >>  To: Discuss the internals of DMD <dmd-internals at puremagic.com>
> >>  Sent: Fri, August 27, 2010 11:21:20 AM
> >> Subject: Re: [dmd-internals]  default dmd target == debdmd?
> >>
> >> On 27 August 2010 17:15,  Steve Schveighoffer <schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>  > I  was in the process of doing some windows phobos development, so I  
>decided
> >>to
> >> > start using the latest compiler from  trunk.  But when I started 
 building
> >> > druntime and phobos, I was  getting these  printouts:
> >> >
> >> > Max # of fixups =  0
> >> > Max # of fixups =  1
> >> > Max # of fixups =  4
> >> > Max # of fixups = 1
> >> >  ...
> >>  >
> >> > I thought WTF?  Well, it turns out the default build of  dmd  if you just 
>do
> >>make
> >> > -f win32.mak is debdmd, not  dmd.
> >> >
> >> > Is  there a good reason for this?  If  not, can we change the default 
>target
> >>to
> >> >  dmd?
> >>
> >> It's so you can debug the compiler.Pretty much the  only  time you want
> >> the release version is when making an official   release.
> >
> > Or when you want to utilize unreleased  fixes...
> 
> I do not think we should encourage that. Nobody should really be  doing
> that unless they are helping debug/test the compiler. If the fixes  are
> that important, we should be doing a release.
> 
> Note that even when  developing Phobos, you shouldn't ordinarily be
> checking in code which depends  on the latest compiler bugfix. Every
> time that has happened so far, a  compiler beta release has been made.
> It's not reasonable to expect everyone  working on or testing Phobos,
> to build the compiler  themselves.

I understand this point of view, and I agree.  I won't use the trunk version in 
the future.  I still don't think the default should be debug mode, it's very 
confusing.  I can envision people building a released version of the source 
(i.e. from a downloaded tarball) and expecting it to be a release version 
without having to specify different arguments.  How much will this happen?  Not 
sure, but why provide the source if you don't want people to compile it...

-Steve