Explain why we set -xansi -signed for MIPS C.

diff --git a/aclocal.m4 b/aclocal.m4
index b993912620585468c6d4d4fe36490caa49b7395e..54f0757d91b25af83b235380411ae0f30d8767d9 100644 (file)
--- a/aclocal.m4
+++ b/aclocal.m4
@@ -145,6 +145,21 @@ AC_DEFUN(AC_LBL_C_INIT,
                    # don't want to try using GCC-style -W flags.
                    #
                    ac_lbl_cc_dont_try_gcc_dashW=yes
+                   #
+                   # It also, apparently, defaults to "char" being
+                   # unsigned, unlike most other C implementations;
+                   # I suppose we could say "signed char" whenever
+                   # we want to guarantee a signed "char", but let's
+                   # just force signed chars.
+                   #
+                   # -xansi is normally the default, but the
+                   # configure script was setting it; perhaps -cckr
+                   # was the default in the Old Days.  (Then again,
+                   # that would probably be for backwards compatibility
+                   # in the days when ANSI C was Shiny and New, i.e.
+                   # 1989 and the early '90's, so maybe we can just
+                   # drop support for those compilers.)
+                   #
                    $1="$$1 -xansi -signed"
                    ;;
 

diff --git a/configure b/configure
index f985dd42860ef00ec39160edefdb4cd37d926124..a387079727cf7679188778ddc7303b3ce25af666 100755 (executable)
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -3406,6 +3406,21 @@ rm -f core conftest.err conftest.$ac_objext conftest.$ac_ext
                    # don't want to try using GCC-style -W flags.
                    #
                    ac_lbl_cc_dont_try_gcc_dashW=yes
+                   #
+                   # It also, apparently, defaults to "char" being
+                   # unsigned, unlike most other C implementations;
+                   # I suppose we could say "signed char" whenever
+                   # we want to guarantee a signed "char", but let's
+                   # just force signed chars.
+                   #
+                   # -xansi is normally the default, but the
+                   # configure script was setting it; perhaps -cckr
+                   # was the default in the Old Days.  (Then again,
+                   # that would probably be for backwards compatibility
+                   # in the days when ANSI C was Shiny and New, i.e.
+                   # 1989 and the early '90's, so maybe we can just
+                   # drop support for those compilers.)
+                   #
                    V_CCOPT="$V_CCOPT -xansi -signed"
                    ;;