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

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

On Mon, Aug 16, 2021 at 12:06:46PM -0400, Derrick Stolee wrote:

quoted

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.