Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: 286 (was re: Compress)
Message-ID: <1989Jul23.052903.1923@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <4660@crash.cts.com> <2916@ast.cs.vu.nl> <4686@omepd.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 89 05:29:03 GMT

In article <4686@omepd.UUCP> pcm@iwarpj.UUCP (Phil C. Miller) writes:
>   ... I think that the 286 will be with us for a long time.

So will the pdp8.  (Yes, there are still pdp8s aplenty in the world.)
But nobody writes software for them any more.

>2. You probably don't need to work on a 286 compiler.  Several people in the
>   Minix community, including me, have offered in the past to contribute
>   their time to produce a compiler which understands the 286.  The offer is
>   still open.  I'm sure that enough interested parties could be found to
>   port the libraries, commands, etc.

The trouble is that "port" in this context does not mean "clean up", it
means "change" (some would say "break").  The problem with the 286 is
not that its segments are ugly -- almost everything about the x86 family
is ugly -- but that programs cannot just rely on the compiler to sort it
all out.  Unless you accept massive inefficiency, EVERY PROGRAM that
wants to use them has to be munged to know about them and manage them.
This is an abomination, and Andy is doing the right thing in refusing
to have anything to do with it.
-- 
1961-1969: 8 years of Apollo.  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1969-1989: 20 years of nothing.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
