GCC 4.8 & cygwin32 vs. cygwin64 packages and installers

[Tomasz Pona]

Hello All,

I've been writing the Cygwin list ages ago, so welcome again.

For many years since my last visit I haven't bumped into any Cygwin 
problem I couldn't cope with myself, so many thanks to all Cygwin devels 
for your good job.
But now I run into a real problem with GNU GCC packages availability and 
how they're presented in the installer.

My GCC availablity problem:
I need to work with GCC 4.8, but it isn't available anymore for 
download. I uderstand obviousness of the versions succession, but the 
upgrade to 4.9 was done only recently and the choice is between 4.9.2 
and 4.9.3. I'd say this isn't significant version change. It'd be nice 
to have a choice at least between 4.8 and 4.9 and great to be able to 
work with several versions (since ~4.6) at once.

My installer package presentation problem:
I noticed the GCC 4.8 is still available as "cygwin64-gcc-" under 
"setup-x86" and as "cygwin32-gcc" under "setup-x86_64".
But I can't take any advantage of this, because:
- these packages land in separate cygwin/cygwin64 folders, like the'd be 
installed using the other installer
- "setup-x86" has no "cygwin32-gcc-"
- "setup-x86_64" has no "cygwin64-gcc-"
Why GCC 4.8 isn't available as a default package when it is as 
"cygwin32-gcc-"/"cygwin64-gcc-"?

Maybe you could just loosen the package presentation/availability rules 
in your installers?


Thanks in advance for any response,
Tomasz Pona