compiling GSL on digital unix.

[Jon McAuliffe <jonm at amazon dot com>]

hi,

i'm compiling gsl-0.4.1 on digital unix v4.0e, rev. 1091, using gcc-2.7.2.3.
i ran configure successfully. fyi, here is the system type it identified:

checking host system type... alphaev56-dec-osf4.0e

when i ran make, i received the following output:

host:~/gsl-0.4.1 [49] make
make all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/home3/jonm/gsl-0.4.1'
Making all in err
make[2]: Entering directory `/home3/jonm/gsl-0.4.1/err'
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I..   -mieee -g -O2 -c error.c
cc1: Invalid option `ieee'
make[2]: *** [error.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home3/jonm/gsl-0.4.1/err'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home3/jonm/gsl-0.4.1'
make: *** [all-recursive-am] Error 2

i poked around the Info node for gcc, trying to find documentation on -mieee.
no luck. i then made the following change to configure:

host:~/gsl-0.4.1 [51] diff configure.ORIG configure
2210,2213d2209
<         alpha*-*-*) 
<             CFLAGS="-mieee $CFLAGS"
<             echo "$ac_t""adding -mieee" 1>&6
<             ;;

this change suppresses the addition of the -mieee flag for alpha machines.
i re-ran configure, then successfully built libgsl.a.

two questions:

1. what is -mieee? it is not a documented part of the gcc i am using.

2. am i going to get incorrect behavior out of libgsl.a by virtue of
   the absence of this architecture-dependent compile flag?

thanks
jon.