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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!EU.net!sun4nl!fwi.uva.nl!not-for-mail From: casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik) Newsgroups: comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.bsd.misc Subject: Re: Solaris 2.6 Supersedes: <cancel.casper.32a299de@mail.fwi.uva.nl> Date: 2 Dec 1996 09:57:02 +0100 Organization: Sun Microsystems, Netherlands Lines: 32 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <casper.32a299de@mail.fwi.uva.nl> References: <32986299.AC7@mail.esrin.esa.it> <casper.329abb76@mail.fwi.uva.nl> <57ej3a$7ij@panix2.panix.com> <casper.329ae8f2@mail.fwi.uva.nl> <57sguo$n9o@web.nmti.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: mail.fwi.uva.nl Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.solaris:91070 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1645 peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >So make long 64 bits wide. You're going to have to do it soon when you >go to 64 bit pointers anyway, so why not jump the gun? Binary compatibility, source code compatibility, minor matters such as SPARC V8 ABI compliance. Requires coordination of compiler & OS releas. Cannot release compilers that are 2.3-2.6 compatible This includes 3rd party compilers. Why change long to 64 bit now and have people agonize over changes twice rather than change once when moving to 64 bits. Such gradual moves only make stuff more painful, also because you'd end up supporting all three versions at one point. Besides, 32bit is still the largest part of the installed base. On such systems 64 bits ops need to be implemented in software. >(and yes, long should have been 64 bits on the original VAX UNIX, and having >long 64 bits and char * 32 bit doesn't violate any standards, and portable >code has to assume that long might be longer than char * anyway...) Sure, but it's too late to change it this late in 32 bit Solaris. Casper -- Casper Dik - Sun Microsystems - via my guest account at the University of Amsterdam. My work e-mail address is: Casper.Dik@Holland.Sun.COM Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may be fiction rather than truth.