about rule20.5

[MMouse]

How you can say that a semi-hobbyist open-source compiler lives up to that, I have no idea.

This is a bit unfair. The GCC compiler is probably the most widely tested piece of software ever written.
It also forms the core of some very expensive commercial compilers used in safety critical software.

Bill Forbes

I don't see how you can say that.... GCC is very widely used BUT most are as individual as people. GCC is the GNU Compiler Colection. It is a generic compiler but there are many versions maintained by many different people for many different targets. The code in the compilers comes from many different (uncontrolled) sources of varying standards. Most people download and build their own in uncontrolled "processes" and build and use it with any number of different libraries..... It is like doing an IQ test on one person and extrapolating it out to the whole human race.

There is no GCC test suite as such either. I know some one who looked at the suposed test suite ad said it is an unstructured incomplete partial regressiont test suite or poor quality with no provenance.... I understand that a couple of people have put one or two of the GCC compilers though the Pum-Hall and Perenial test suites with poor results.... though to be fair they are ISO C test suites not GCC test suites.

So many thousands of [different] GCC compilers have been tested to some extent with some test suites of varying quality.

Which compilers used in safety critical work does it form the core for?