Compiling for ARM9 ?

Not sure If I'm right here, but ...

Does the Linux version of Max use GCC?
If so, can it compile ARM9 code (using the -mcpu=arm920t option) ?

This is really in connection with my GP2X thread.

The soon to be released unit features an ARM9 processor with Linux installed. So, I'm just looking at the possibility of Max compiling compatible code.

No, the core of BlitzMax is bcc which compiles .bmx files into .s assembler files, currently only IA32 (Intel) and PPC (Power PC) are supported targets - no ARM yet.

GCC is only used to build the C/C++ files that we depend on and to link everything together.

Thanks for the heads up Simon.
Just out of curiosity, would it be a big task to get ARM9 support?

is there no way to compile .s into arm code...?

No, because .s files are assembler files where the instruction sets used are those used by the target processor. In other words, the file for the PC contains assembler using x86 instructions and that for the Mac contains code for the PPC processor.

For ARM, this file would need to use the instruction set for that processor before it would work. And even then, some re-working of BlitzMax modules would more than likely be necessary to take advantage of the dual processor set-up of the GP2X, as well as changes to audio/video drivers, amongst others.