Path: csiph.com!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: BGB Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: GCC is 25 years old today Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:44:36 -0700 Organization: albasani.net Lines: 25 Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <12-03-053@comp.compilers> References: <12-03-051@comp.compilers> NNTP-Posting-Host: news.iecc.com X-Trace: leila.iecc.com 1332749783 8648 64.57.183.58 (26 Mar 2012 08:16:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@iecc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:16:23 +0000 (UTC) Keywords: GCC, history Posted-Date: 26 Mar 2012 04:16:23 EDT X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:520 On 3/22/2012 3:29 PM, Rui Maciel wrote: > Today the GCC development team celebrates the 25th anniversary of the GNU > Compiler Collection. > > Taken from: > http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2012-03/msg00347.html > In your views, what has been GCC's main contribution to the world of > compilers? maybe, being free. I vaguely remember a time when compilers tended to cost money, and weren't exactly cheap. GCC showed up in various forms (such as DJGPP, and later Cygwin and MinGW), and in not much time, most previously non-free compilers (MSVC, Watcom, ...) became freely available as well. if not for GCC, maybe compilers would tend to still cost money? either that, or maybe this trend was inevitable?