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Add to SafariWhen comparing GCC vs 8cc, the Slant community recommends 8cc for most people. In the question“Which open source C compiler's source code is easiest to understand?” 8cc is ranked 1st while GCC is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose 8cc is:
8cc was created to be simple and easy to read, so it could be used as study material to learn about compilers.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Mature
GCC was first released in 1987 when it was called the GNU C Compiler, a couple of months after it was released it was extended to support C++ too. Nowadays it supports other languages than C or C++.
Having been in use and constant development for more than 20 years it has reached a state of maturity and stability. The fact that it's so old also means that there are countless resources out there for people who want to use it.
Pro Default on many systems
GCC is the default compiler on several systems. Most of the time people have it installed on their machine without even knowing it's there.
Pro Available for even the most obscure hardware
Since it's so old and very popular it has been ported to almost any architecture imaginable. This means that it's probably compatible with even the most obscure and unheard hardware.
Pro Very stable, excellent cross-platform use
Pro Intentionally written to be easily understood
8cc was created to be simple and easy to read, so it could be used as study material to learn about compilers.
Pro Supports all C11 features
Pro Very small
8cc is a very small compiler. You can read and understand it quickly.
Cons
Con Generated code is rather slow
Since it's not built to be a production-grade compiler but for learning-purposes, the generated code is about 2x slower than what you get from using GCC.
