Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nuchat!steve
From: steve@nuchat.UUCP (Steve Nuchia)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: RISC is a nasty no-no!
Message-ID: <696@nuchat.UUCP>
Date: 27 Feb 88 19:46:28 GMT
References: <179@wsccs.UUCP>
Organization: Public Access - Houston, Tx
Lines: 29

From article <179@wsccs.UUCP>, by terry@wsccs.UUCP (terry):

[ lots of self-congratulation about how portable his code is, followed
  by complaints that it isn't portable to the SPARC ]

> THE REASON:  Type-casting.  You can't.  Small programs seem to, but it doesn't
> work.  Bytes tend to be word aligned.  Other messy stuff.  It was not a
> pretty sight (site?).  I am sure there are other problems, but geez, this is
> demonstrably portable code.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

FLAME ON!    ( I love this! )

WRONG.  It is demonstrably NON-portable code - it failed to port
to a working compiler on a reasonable machine.  If the bloody
unix kernel runs (and it does) your silly application should, too.

FLAME OFF.

How about some code fragments and a discussion of how they
meet the standards (de facto or otherwise) and how the SPARC
compiler fails to properly implement them.

Get a clue - portable doesn't mean "runs on X processors", it
means "conforms to standards".
-- 
Steve Nuchia	    | [...] but the machine would probably be allowed no mercy.
uunet!nuchat!steve  | In other words then, if a machine is expected to be
(713) 334 6720	    | infallible, it cannot be intelligent.  - Alan Turing, 1947