29 May
2003
29 May
'03
1:19 a.m.
--- Brian Hechinger <wonko(a)4amlunch.net> wrote:
it has really opened my eyes to the fact that your
average opensource
coder has been so coddled by the whole gcc/x86 platform that they have
really started to make stupid mistakes and even stupider assumptions
about things.
They used to say the same thing about BSD/VAX coders...
the most common assumption is that a void pointer and
an int pointer is
the same size. which just happens to be true in 32-bit land...
The charge in 1983 was "char * and an int are the same size..."
... but totally hoses those of us who live in 64-bit
land.
The hosed parties 20 years ago tended to be 16-bit users/admins.
hell, even the code that autoconf generates for tests
makes that
assumption.
I realize that Linux on x86 is a hugely popular platform for Open Source
work, but there's plenty of UltraSPARC machines out there... surely
you don't need an Alpha to shatter these assumptions
-ethan
(whose Alpha is running VMS, not UNIX; because it can)