[SPARCbook] Re: Can a SPARCbook 1 be revived?

[Bill Bradford]

On Mon, Mar 05, 2001 at 09:36:24PM -0500, Ken Hansen wrote:
> I *think* sun had two compilers, and the base one that was
> included was usually left unused in deference to a better GNU
> compiler. Also, there was no revenue stream to support
> continuede development of this tool, as the SPARC architecture
> moved on...

Actually, SunOS (4.x.x), when it was BSD-based, always included a
compiler as part of the OS (cuz you had to rebuild the kernel!).

Solaris (SunOS 5.x, SYSV-based) has a 'dynamic' kernel (loadable/
unloadable modules), no need for a recompile, therefore no need
for a compiler - so they yanked it out as to sell it as an extra-cost
option.

You can install GCC on either platform, but it was a lot easier
when you already had a compiler (cc) in place to bootstrap it with. 8-)

Bill (sunhelp.org/mrbill.net was a SPARCstation Classic running
SunOS 4.1.4_U1 once... took an entire DAY to install all necessary
patches, security fixes, kernel recompiles, DNS resolvers, and tcp
wrappers...)

-- 
Bill Bradford
mrbill at mrbill.net
Austin, TX