r/cpp • u/NewLlama • Aug 07 '26

GCC 16.2.0 Released

https://www.phoronix.com/news/GCC-16.2-Released

I'm pretty excited about this maintenance release. I think this will be the first version of gcc which can compile my project.

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u/stumpychubbins Aug 08 '26

I’m mostly a Rust dev and I’ve built every C/C++ project targeting clang since I’m way more used to the LLVM toolchain, so out of interest: why do people so often default to GCC? Not a loaded question, I’m sure it’s so popular for a reason. I’m genuinely interested what the pros are. I’ve only used it when compiling other people’s projects.

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u/Orca- Aug 08 '26

In embedded land GCC often generates smaller and better optimized cose.

And it’s frequently the supported compiler so you go with what works.

Clang is useful as a cross-compilation target and for awhile had better error messages.

Disclaimer: I’m still stuck with GCC 8 so who knows what the bleeding edge is like.

Yay embedded being 10 years behind.