Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!coherent!dplatt
From: dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: New Macs
Message-ID: <79844@coherent.coherent.com>
Date: 12 Oct 90 17:53:44 GMT
References: <221503@<1990Oct8> <143400020@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt)
Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 21

In article <143400020@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> ml27192@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> The LC has no 881 or PMU; I don't know if it can accept any.
> 
> This will cause problems with programs that assume 020=881.
> Apple just a few months ago began warning developers about that. Usefull.

Apple has been saying "Test for the features you really want to use, and
don't assume that Feature A implies Feature B" for a long time.  I
remember "Don't assume that machines whose type is >= MacII have a
68020, FPU, or color" several years ago.  Apple has been providing
developers with decent ways to check for features (e.g. SysEnvirons and
more recently Gestalt) since System 4.1, I think.

Apple did _reiterate_ this warning (specifically, 68020 !-> 68881) a few
months ago... but they've been warning us about the risk of making undue
assumptions about hardware configurations ever since Inside Mac I was
first published.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for developers who can't be bothered to
call SysEnvirons and check the hasFPU bit.