Subj : Re: OT: horrible 8086 segmentation
To   : All
From : The Natural Philosopher
Date : Wed Nov 27 2024 11:40:07

On 26/11/2024 17:37, Josef Möllers wrote:
> On 25.11.24 18:33, mm0fmf wrote:
> [...]
>
>> e.g.
>> "
>>      // start of barrel
>>      EventRec far* searchp = (EventRec far*) work.bufs;
>>
>> "
>>
>>
>> My eyes! My eyes! That was COMPACT model code, so 64k of code and 1MB
>> of data, code addresses were 16bit offsets to the CS reg and data was
>> far so 32 bits of segment and offset of DS or ES. And of course you
>> had to be extra careful of any pointer arithmetic as a far pointer
>> wrapped after 64k. You had to use slower HUGE pointers to get
>> automatic normalisation. God it was shit.
>>
>
> And to consider that, at that time, processors like MC68000 or NS32016
> were readily available.
>
Backwards compatibility.
DOS came from 8080 based CP/M , to run on an 8086, to where 8 bit code
could be easily ported.

And so we were stick with that architecture.

A prime example off 'mass marketing always wins over excellence'

and
'nothing succeeds like success'



--
Labour - a bunch of rich people convincing poor people to vote for rich
people by telling poor people that "other" rich people are the reason
they are poor.

Peter Thompson

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