Re: [Tinycc-devel] Waiting for a release / Please delay any commits

[Steffen Nurpmeso]

Hi.

tinycc-devel@nongnu.org wrote in
 <trinity-c71755ce-4607-42bf-bb80-4c5e76069aa3-1713395142777@msvc-mesg-we\
 b109>:
 |>> We have the tinycc 0.9.28 release canditate for a long time,
 |>> but still no release
 |
 |@grischka, we need you
 |
 |>> Savannah has a buglist for tinycc:
 |>> [1]https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=tinycc[/1]
 |>> It works for collecting issue,
 |>> but unfortunately no one works on this issue list
 |
 |  [1] https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=tinycc
 |
 |> I did not even know that there is a bug tracker!
 |
 |Yes, the bug tracker is a builtin feature of the software,
 |which is running to serve [2]gnu.org[/2] and [3]nongnu.org[/3]

Sure.  Unfortunately -- it seems -- one cannot simply leave it
disabled like for example lzlib for version control.

 |> Note that
 |> [4]https://bellard.org/tcc[/4]/
 |> says very clearly
 |> You want to help ?
 |> Here are some suggestions:
 |> Report bugs to the mailing list (and eventually fix them).
 |
 |> which seems to foster mailing-list communication, 
 |> and that is what was my impression for the many years i am on this list.
 |
 |Yes, I know this text..
 |And with so few developer working on improving tinycc,
 |the mailing list is the main location, where bug reports where recognized
 |and sometimes get fixed.
 |
 |But as soon, as a Mail is out of the short term history, it is also \
 |ignored.
 |
 |As an example, i wrote about fixing tinycc to support
 |`nolibc.h`, but my assembly skills and my understanding,
 |how tccasm.c and the arch dependant assember parts work
 |where not good enough, so i was not able to fix it myself.
 |My mail is now 23 month old.
 |
 |  [2] http://gnu.org
 |  [3] http://nongnu.org
 |  [4] https://bellard.org/tcc
 |
 |Out of sight,out of mind.

Sigh.  It seems you have very specific desires the software shall
do, and noone else is interested, therefore you start using the
bug tracker that this project does not use by policy.  Wow.

I mean, i myself have tried for a full ten years to get something
into less, tried maybe -- at least! -- six years by email, then as
github issue, and then waited two years with a github merge
request, until, finally, this january (!), i got a first response.
(It is in now, yay, even though he has implemented it differently
than i wanted, but i mean, in ten years you grow some habits and
what he did is a good thing by itself.)

So what i mean is, just in case another developer that is
interested in doing lots of work jumps in, you could possibly ask
him fresh and anew?  But it seems you want him to find this thing
on the bug tracker and then start implementing it himself saying
"oho that is a good thing, Linux-only nolibc!!" or something.
Aha.

 |>> @grischka, what additional things can we do, to help you to make \
 |>> a release?
 |
 |>> Last time it just suddenly happened.
 |
 |I hope for a release every day.

Come on -- i think you totally over-exaggerate.
Man some people seem to have such a tremendous amount of free
time, that they have time for *that*!
I mean, i am late, have to cook for dozens of hungry mouth now,
and will not be in bed before hm 7 o'clock in the morning!

 |> I mean, v0.9.28 is just another number, right?
 |
 |NO
 |
 |Some people just get the outdated tcc 0.9.27 from the tcc homepage,
 |and many linux distributions also have outdated tinycc packages.
 |As an example, my distribution package is from [5]14.Aug[/5].2020.
 |That's better that the plain tcc-0.9.27 but still more than 3.5 years old.

Hmmm,

    https://repology.org/project/tcc/versions

indeed says that there are numerous totally uninterested
maintainers which give a shit on C development with tcc.
AlpineLinux not, and my CRUX thing also not .. even though it is
no longer mentioned on the above page.

 |> Currently it is
 |> version=20240309
 |> gitver=9d2068c6309dc50dfdbbc30a5d6757683d3f884c
 |
 |Self compiling from the mob branch is not the issue.
 |
 |The Download link on the TinyCC homepage links to
 |[6]https://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/tinycc[/6]/
 |and the newest tinycc is from [7]17.Dec[/7].2017

Come on, Detlev.  If you are an interested C programmer, and you
really need a top-modern tcc, you say yourself it is not an issue.

 |> You do this prodding all the time, 
 ...
 |A release is important.
 |See above.

Well i do not disagree, but grischka seems to be the man here, and
he is not currently doing it.
Do you think that gets better by making that noise?

 |> This is stunning since i learned that you contributed
 |> to this software over fourteen (14!) years ago already, 
 |
 |Upps, so long ago.....
 |I'm getting older

 |> half a decade or so before i subscribed.
 |You're welcome. Everybody can help.
 |
 |> Why don't you treat this is a "permanent rolling release" 
 |> instead for as long as there is no .28, 
 |
 |A rolling release does not help, see above.
 |
 |> or (heaven!) 1.0
 |
 |After the tcc-0.9.28 release, i wish tcc to get 
 |* more attention
 |* a bunch of updates and fixes
 |* hopefully c99 conformance
 |* probably a better c11/c17 conformance
 |* probably more c23 features
 |*
 |* a lot more testing
 |* a tcc-0.9.29 release
 |*
 |* even more attention
 |* even more updates and fixes
 |* even more testing
 |* a tcc-1.0 release
 |
 |The times between releases must be much shorter.
 |
 |As an example, wine has a bi-weekly snapshot release,
 |which gets a new revision number and there is a yearly
 |stabilization/bugfix only phase, which ends in a new major release.
 |
 |> I am happy to have tcc and that there are some major contributors
 |> that bring this project that i use almost every day forward.
 |
 |You're welcome.

Well then.  Good night from (and likely to) Germany,
Ciao,

--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)