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From: jcav@quads.uchicago.edu (john  cavallino)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Excel on LC...the FPU question
Keywords: Excel,FPU, retraction
Message-ID: <1991May1.002704.5989@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 1 May 91 00:27:04 GMT
References: <4497@ac.dal.ca> <42004@netnews.upenn.edu> <1991Apr25.213253.21845@midway.uchicago.edu>
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In article <1991Apr25.213253.21845@midway.uchicago.edu> jcav@quads.uchicago.edu (john  cavallino) writes:
>In article <42004@netnews.upenn.edu> alex@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Edmund Davis) writes:
>>In fact, the same problem occurs on the LC.  Until the new macs came
>>out, Microsoft (among other) assumed that any machine with a 68020 or
>>better would certainly have an FPU.  Apple cut the FPU from the LC
>>and IIsi in order to bring the price down.
>
>{$SETC __flame__=TRUE}
[my tirade deleted]
>{$SETC __flame__=FALSE}
>
>(yes, I'm a Pascal weenie.  So sue me :-)

I have just received a mail message from a member of the Excel development
team, explaining exactly why version 2.2 barfs on the new machines with
68020+ processors but no FPUs.  It's apparently >MUCH< simpler and less
sinister than paranoid people like me thought.  They made NO FPU
assumptions based on CPU type.  Excel 2.2 DOES call SysEnvirons and DOES
attempt to look at the "hasFPU" field, but it tests the field using a TST.W
instead of a TST.B, which leads to it assuming that all Color Quickdraw
machines have an FPU (the "hasColorQD" field is in the adjacent byte).  This
is a bug, not a design error.  I would be the last to say the Microsoft is
without sin, but in this case my flame was unjustified.  And anyway, they
fixed the problem in a free upgrade.  :-)


-- 
John Cavallino                      |     EMail: jcav@midway.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago Hospitals     |    USMail: 5841 S. Maryland Ave, Box 145
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