Re: [PATCH] ci: add job for gcc-4.8 to GitHub Actions

From: SZEDER Gábor <szeder.dev@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 17, 2021, 11:15 UTC
Message-ID: <20210817111512.GA2257957@szeder.dev>
In-Reply-To: <YRqP7J7Gu0VmB6q2@coredump.intra.peff.net>

On Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 12:18:52PM -0400, Jeff King wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

> On Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 12:06:46PM -0400, Derrick Stolee wrote:
> 
> > Forgive me, I probably missed a discussion about this
> > somewhere else on the list, but...
> > 
> > Could you describe why we want GCC 4.8 in our CI? Is that a
> > compiler version that we officially support? What kind of
> > syntax triggers a problem on 4.8 versus latest?
> 
> Try fb9d7431cf (travis-ci: build with GCC 4.8 as well, 2019-07-18).
> (found with "git log -Sgcc-4.8 ci"). The gist of it is to find variable
> declarations in for-loops.
> 
> IMHO it may be more trouble than it's worth. If we can't find a compiler
> that complains on this construct, then maybe it is not a construct worth
> worrying too much about.

I for one like for loop initial declarations, because they allow us to limit the scope of the loop variable to the loop, and would love to see it used in more places (well, wherever possible, actually, but that'd be a lot of churn). So I would prefer to just drop this job sooner rather than later, update CodingGuidelines, and, if deemed necessary, launch a weather balloon.