Optimized Mozilla Firebird builds

[phongn]

For those of you using Firebird under Windows, one guy online is using Microsoft VS.NET 2002 to compile an optimized version of Firebird. It seems a bit smoother than the official nightly releases (which are probably targetted at generic i386 or something like that).

This particular version is targetted at the P6 core (PPro, P2, P3). He would make a K7/P4 version, but Mozilla's code will not compile under VS.NET 2003 as it is somewhat incorrect C++.

Nightly builds are here, the 7/02 one seems pretty good. Note that the executables are not installers, they are merely self-extracting archives.

[Crayz9000]

Are you sure that it's Mozilla's code at fault, and not Visual Studio? Microsoft has been known to tweak stuff around in a way it's not supposed to be.

[phongn]

Are you sure that it's Mozilla's code at fault, and not Visual Studio? Microsoft has been known to tweak stuff around in a way it's not supposed to be.

VS.NET 2003 apparently is a good compiler that requires strict code - I'm willing to take the guy's word on it.

[Pu-239]

Well wasn't Moz originally developed on VC++ 6, then ported to work on MinGW? Anyways, C++ is hardly completely standardized, as there are big diferences between compilers. Anyways, who knows what workarounds had to be taken to compile on either of these compilers?

On linux, you compile everything with GCC, with all of it's extensions, though not really an issue, since there isn't another good compiler anyway except ICC, which has probably cloned them anyway to compile the linux kernel. The problem is that there are differences between versions of GCC, like GCC2 and 3, making stuff like java plugins incompatible. Can you compile Firebird w/ 3.3.1 and run it with a jre compiled w/ 3.2 ?

-Interesting thought for other linux users though not me because of DL time-
ICC is free for noncommercial use on linux(not windows), so you can optimize all you performance demanding stuff like openGL libraries and parts of the nVidia driver. Glibc will probably break though, screwing everything with it.

How much does ICC cost on windows again? Somewhere around 500$ I think? Not much more expensive than some versions of Office.

[Xon]

This particular version is targetted at the P6 core (PPro, P2, P3). He would make a K7/P4 version, but Mozilla's code will not compile under VS.NET 2003 as it is somewhat incorrect C++.

Well that answers that question of if it used managed C++ (ie uses the .NET framework).

If it was managed C++, the JIT could do the optimizations per machine.

[Crazy_Vasey]

Well wasn't Moz originally developed on VC++ 6, then ported to work on MinGW? Anyways, C++ is hardly completely standardized, as there are big diferences between compilers. Anyways, who knows what workarounds had to be taken to compile on either of these compilers?.

C++ is completely standardised. It's just that most of the major compilers out there now either date to pre-standard or just plain suck. And a lot of programmers don't help themselves with their coding.

[phongn]

Well wasn't Moz originally developed on VC++ 6, then ported to work on MinGW? Anyways, C++ is hardly completely standardized, as there are big diferences between compilers. Anyways, who knows what workarounds had to be taken to compile on either of these compilers?

C++ is standardized. However, a great many compilers allow improper coding (like void main()) as most programmers don't write perfect coding. In addition, VC++ 6 is more lax than VS.NET 2003

On linux, you compile everything with GCC, with all of it's extensions, though not really an issue, since there isn't another good compiler anyway except ICC, which has probably cloned them anyway to compile the linux kernel. The problem is that there are differences between versions of GCC, like GCC2 and 3, making stuff like java plugins incompatible. Can you compile Firebird w/ 3.3.1 and run it with a jre compiled w/ 3.2 ?

No.

ICC is free for noncommercial use on linux(not windows), so you can optimize all you performance demanding stuff like openGL libraries and parts of the nVidia driver. Glibc will probably break though, screwing everything with it.

ICC has some issues and isn't always faster than GCC. It depends on the situation.

How much does ICC cost on windows again? Somewhere around 500$ I think? Not much more expensive than some versions of Office.

More than that, IIRC.

[Pu-239]

What I meant by not "completely standardized" was that few if any compilers *completely* adhered to the standards (sort of like browsers and the DOM). -well at least 2 years ago. Newer versions of compilers have probably improved significantly though.

More than that, IIRC.

Um, looked it up on Intel's website, and it's around 400$ for Windows.
http://www.intel.com/software/products/ ... celist.htm
(look at bottom)

Noncommercial download/license for linux is here:
http://www.intel.com/software/products/ ... noncom.htm
Pity that some build utilities don't fully work. Kernel patches are probably outdated, and on second thought, it is probably of dubious use unless you are a c/c++ programmer, since big apps would be difficult to compile.