development on Alpine Linux box (PCC, GCC,...)

I'm not really an expert (trying to learn) and come from OSX, I was C-coding quite happily "over there".
I have been following/dabbling in Alpine Linux for some time and thought it was time to take the plunge, so :
- copied over my (working) code
- installed PCC
and nothing : I eventually got up to the point where PCC complained about "as"(sembler) (exit code 1 from the top of my head)
- installed GCC
still no sigar : sys_siglist undefined
but PCC doesn't complain about the "as" anymore (and also sys_siglist undefined)

Conclusion :
- PCC does not seem to include an assembler, but relies on some assembler (GCC ?) being installed
- read some report (August 2016) of musl not supporting sys_siglist

Question :
1. Is it feasible to use Alpine Linux as a development machine
2. What is the preferred compiler (I'm thinking GCC ?)
Of course I know "I don't have to do this" (trying to shoot in my own foot). It's just that I am fond of small (and well thought out) things, and hate bloat.

Any (founded ?) opinions and/or pointers apreciated...

wim