NEWS: Moved Tiny C Compiler advice to a separate file.

NEWS

@@ -152,12 +152,6 @@ roughly in decreasing order of importance.
   - (bitrot) Fix compilation under gcc 4.x. Backported from gentoo portage.
     Also, reduce warnings on gcc 4.2 snapshots.
   - (bitrot) Update SpiderMonkey configure check Debian compatibility
-  - (experimental, new feature) Tiny C Compiler support, currently
-    suffering from many problems.  Use --disable-nls to avoid alloca,
-    and do not use CFLAGS=-g.  Perl, Python, and Ruby provide linker
-    options like -export-dynamic that TCC 0.9.23 does not support.
-    Using GNU TLS and Guile together can crash TCC (Debian bug 418360).
-    SEE 2.0.1131 has a syntax error inside #ifndef __GNUC__.
   - (new feature 779) make uninstall
   - (experimental, new feature) Native Win32 port
   - (enhancement) If make -k was used and a sub-Make fails, build the

doc/tinycc.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,187 @@
+Compiling ELinks with Tiny C Compiler
+=====================================
+
+ELinks has been successfully compiled with http://www.tinycc.org/[Tiny
+C Compiler] version 0.9.23, however there are several problems.
+This file lists some of these problems and their possible solutions.
+
+Perl uses unsupported -Wl,-E
+----------------------------
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+checking for Perl... no
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+`config.log` reveals:
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+configure:18039: checking for Perl
+configure:18082: tcc -o conftest ... -rdynamic conftest.c -Wl,-E ... -lperl ... >&5
+tcc: unsupported linker option '-E'
+configure:18088: $? = 1
+...
+configure:18106: result: no
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The `-Wl,-E` option comes from this command:
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ldopts
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+TCC 0.9.23 does not support the option, so ELinks builds without Perl.
+
+Python uses unsupported -Xlinker -export-dynamic
+------------------------------------------------
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+checking for Python... yes
+checking for python... /usr/bin/python
+...
+Browser scripting ............... Guile, Lua, SpiderMonkey
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+`config.log` reveals:
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+configure:18204: checking for Python
+configure:18208: result: yes
+configure:18219: checking for python
+configure:18237: found /usr/bin/python
+configure:18250: result: /usr/bin/python
+configure:18287: tcc -o conftest ... -rdynamic conftest.c -Xlinker -export-dynamic ... -lpython2.3 ... >&5
+tcc: invalid option -- '-Xlinker'
+configure:18293: $? = 1
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The `-Xlinker -export-dynamic` options come from this command:
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+python -c 'from distutils import sysconfig; print sysconfig.get_config_var("LINKFORSHARED")'
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+TCC 0.9.23 does not support `-Xlinker`, so ELinks builds without
+Python.
+
+Ruby uses unsupported -Wl,-export-dynamic
+-----------------------------------------
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+checking for Ruby... yes
+checking for ruby... /usr/bin/ruby
+checking Ruby version... 1.8.3
+checking for Ruby header files... /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux
+configure: error: Ruby not found
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+`config.log` reveals:
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+configure:18617: checking for Ruby
+configure:18641: result: yes
+configure:18653: checking for ruby
+configure:18671: found /usr/bin/ruby
+configure:18684: result: /usr/bin/ruby
+configure:18694: checking Ruby version
+configure:18698: result: 1.8.3
+configure:18701: checking for Ruby header files
+configure:18706: result: /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux
+configure:18765: tcc -o conftest ... -rdynamic -Wl,-export-dynamic ... conftest.c -lruby1.8 ... >&5
+tcc: unsupported linker option '-export-dynamic'
+configure:18771: $? = 1
+configure:18808: error: Ruby not found
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The `-rdynamic -Wl,-export-dynamic` options come from this command:
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ruby -r rbconfig -e 'print Config::CONFIG["LDFLAGS"]'
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+TCC 0.9.23 supports the former but not the latter.  To work around the
+error, configure `\--without-ruby`.
+
+Stabs entry has invalid string index
+------------------------------------
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ld -r -o lib.o frames.o parser.o renderer.o tables.o parser/lib.o
+ld: parser/lib.o(.stab+0x2688): Stabs entry has invalid string index.
+parser/lib.o: could not read symbols: Bad value
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Apparently, GNU ld 2.16.91 does not like the debug information
+generated by TCC 0.9.23.  To work around the error, either set
+`LD=tcc` or remove `-g` from `CFLAGS`.
+
+Linker segfault
+---------------
+
+If you configure ELinks with both `\--with-gnutls` and `\--with-guile`,
+TCC 0.9.23 crashes when it's trying to link ELinks.
+
+http://bugs.debian.org/418360[Debian bug #418360] has a patch that
+fixes this.
+
+Undefined symbol alloca
+-----------------------
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+    [LINK]   src/elinks
+tcc: undefined symbol 'alloca'
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+GNU libc 2.3.6 declares `alloca()` in `<alloca.h>` but does not
+actually define it as a function, perhaps because the definition must
+be specific to each compiler.  TCC 0.9.23 does not define `alloca()`
+either and fails to generate an executable but stupidly exits with
+code 0.
+
+In ELinks, only `intl/gettext/plural.c` uses `alloca()`, so you can
+avoid the error with `configure --disable-nls`.
+
+Unexpanded @HAVE_ALLOCA_H@ in <see/type.h>
+------------------------------------------
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+.../include/see/type.h:180: identifier expected
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+`<see/type.h>` of
+http://www.adaptive-enterprises.com.au/~d/software/see/[Simple
+ECMAScript Engine] 2.0.1131 has an unexpanded `@HAVE_ALLOCA_H@` inside
+`#ifndef __GNUC__`.  Of course, TCC 0.9.23 does not define `__GNUC__`,
+so an error results.  To avoid the error, either configure ELinks
+`\--without-see`, or edit `<see/type.h>`.
+
+Reported as
+http://www.adaptive-enterprises.com.au/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=65[SEE bug 65].
+
+Advanced: Compiling SEE with TCC
+--------------------------------
+
+If you want even more problems, try compiling Simple ECMAScript Engine
+with Tiny C Compiler as well.
+
+Wrong precedence of sizeof
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+.../see-2.0.1131/libsee/unicase.c:86: pointer expected
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+TCC 0.9.23 misparses `sizeof (a)[0]` used in the `lengthof` macro.
+To work around the bug, change it to `sizeof ((a)[0])`.
+
+Reported as http://bugs.debian.org/419203[Debian bug #419203].
+
+Linker option -soname not supported
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+tcc: invalid option -- '-soname'
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+To construct a proper ELF library, the build system of SEE 2.0.1131
+must specify the shared object name.  Unfortunately, TCC 0.9.23 does
+not appear to support any such option.  So, use some other linker.