Afaik all of them. Has to do with bootstrapping the compiler, and different sizes of extended afaik.

Because? The base problem of having to have libs on host is actually worse on e.g. Linux, because of possible mixing of files.

I'm more interested in the bottom line of whether it is easier to build web programs on a Mac for typical linux and bsd web servers than it is on a Windows PC.

It's exactly the same. Even if Mac were ELF, which it isn't.

I've done cross compiling many times and it is a pain in the butt to create the Elf on windows. I gave up and use CoLinux which is slow but much easier than the painful process of cross compiling and running around searching for all linux .SO and other files.

It's a problem of the target, not the host.

Cross compiling on a Mac is no more difficult than cross-compiling on BSD or Linux. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you need to generate i386 programs, the host compiler has to be an i386 binary as well currently.

Which Mac compilers/computers not capable of producing i386?

Take the typical Mac user today, for example.. with a typical up to date Mac.. or an older Mac from 2 years ago or similar time period.

L505

No. The trouble of crosscompiling to *nix doesn't lie in ELF, but in the way of shared linking that requires (in the current form) libraries on the host.

Yes, but the bottom line is:

-it is easier to create an ELF on a unix like system.

Creating the elf includes linking the elf.

So essentially that was a technical nitpick.

I'm more interested in the bottom line of whether it is easier to build web programs on a Mac for typical linux and bsd web servers than it is on a Windows PC.

For example I'd like to write this on a Powtils website:
1. install Apache on your mac
2. build a web program
3. compile with FPC using option XXXX to target i386
4. upload it to a typical linux hosting account.

I've done cross compiling many times and it is a pain in the butt to create the Elf on windows. I gave up and use CoLinux which is slow but much easier than the painful process of cross compiling and running around searching for all linux .SO and other files.

Which Mac compilers/computers not capable of producing i386?

The Macs with a PowerPC cpu (at least when using fpc; gcc can cross- compile from ppc to i386).

Take the typical Mac user today, for example.. with a typical up to date Mac..

All current Macs have Intel processors.

or an older Mac from 2 years ago or similar time period.

One from 2 years ago could either have a PowerPC or an Intel cpu.

Jonas

Thanks, exactly the info I needed.
I will have to get a Intel Mac to see it happen with my own eyes.. ;-)

But in the mean time I'll put advice up on some websites on what is possible.