Subj : Re: X86S
To   : Tenser
From : AKAcastor
Date : Wed Apr 24 2024 13:58:24

 t> By my count, the Mac is on its 4th hardware architecture (68k,
 t> PowerPC, x86, and now ARM).
 t> Their observation, and it's not a bad one, is that it doesn't
 t> matter all _that_ much: once you've got decent binary translation
 t> support in place for the transition, very few people are writing
 t> assembly language directly anymore; you can just recompile for a
 t> new ISA and go with that.  Of course, issues like you described
 t> are irritating for software developers, most that's an edge case.

I've been thinking about this too since I got an ARM Macbook - there's been some hassles (running non-ARM virtual machines), but in the big picture the problems haven't been the worst.  And from past transitions we've seen that we get over these changes quickly, when it comes to the long term.

Right now the hassle is running some recent-but-not-current x86 software, but it's been quite a while since most of us were concerned with the switch from PowerPC.  Or the switch from 68k before that.  Between the emulation provided by Apple, and the march of time, we've seen an architecture change is survivable.

Anyway, even without a switch to a totally different architecture, we still generally end up needing compatibility layers to run very old software on new machines. (for any platform)

I think it's a bit of the same idea that led to the removal of floppy disk drives from Apple computers, before many people were ready to let them go.  But now when I look back, I think it's more strange how long mostly-unused floppy disk drives kept being installed in PCs. (used maybe for a driver install, because PCs weren't forced to move on to a better standard, because  the floppy drives stuck around.)


Chris/akacastor

--- Maximus 3.01
 * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

.