Re: GM2 on Darwin 20.4.0/M1

[Fischlin Andreas]

Dear Benjamin,

[*] quite interesting to learn that other make similar experiences. Our approach was a different one as having as much as possible code written in a simple Modula-2 language (pyramid on its head) and squeeze all system and possibly underlying language dependencies into as small a number of modules as possible: SysDep, Portab, and DMFloatEnv and optionally depending on the target system also CCalls, CMath, and FPU. Despite the attempts to reduce the effort needed for a port, it is still each time considerable time consuming to reimplement those 3 always needed modules. Notably the testing of the numerical aspects in particular including all exception handling of floating point arithmetics typically requires lots of time as identical results are often impossible to achieve, in particular with current hardware designs ignoring the numerical theory. The testing needs then to focus on similar results staying within a “reasonable” boundary of deviation. My next project here is using P1 with native Silicon Mac support. So far I have never managed to get a gm2 port done.

Andreas

ETH Zurich

Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Fischlin

IPCC Vice-Chair WGII

Systems Ecology - Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics

CHN E 24

Universitaetstrasse 16

8092 Zurich

SWITZERLAND

andreas.fischlin@env.ethz.ch

www.sysecol.ethz.ch/people/andreas.fischlin.html

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             Make it as simple as possible, but distrust it!

________________________________________________________________________

On Wed, 07.06.23, at 19:35, Benjamin Kowarsch <trijezdci@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, 8 Jun 2023 at 00:13, john o goyo wrote:

Although GCC does not support Macos on M1, Ian Sandoe is maintaining a
port, to be hopefully included in GCC 14.

Interesting, but also concerning.

I am glad I moved all my code back to C99*, avoiding getting stuck with gcc when targeting MacOS on Apple silicon.

Out of curiosity, is there any forecast/estimate when GCC will support MacOS on Apple silicon?

Gaius, perhaps you want to consider a back end that generates C99 from Modula-2 input for such situations.

[*] As somebody who doesn't have time to work on projects continuously but taking long hiatuses in between stretches of work, I have regularly been hit by tools or libraries that I was using no longer working once I got back to work, then wasting all my available time on trying to fix the broken dependency, and not getting any real work done at all as I was running out of time and had to take another hiatus, after which again some dependency broke. Eventually, I adopted an NIH ("not implemented here") attitude, writing everything myself, from scratch if needed, and I actually get more work done this way. The only thing I now use is a C99 compiler and its stdlib. Plenty of implementations to choose from if one of them breaks. The next time I will be coding in Modula-2 will be after I get my compiler bootstrapped.

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