Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!hpuamsa!bert
From: bert@hpuamsa.UUCP (Bert_Van Barneveld)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: HP/Rumors
Message-ID: <670001@hpuamsa.UUCP>
Date: 12 Sep 88 12:07:52 GMT
References: <2921@ttrdc.UUCP>
Organization: HP Amstelveen, The Netherlands
Lines: 20

>execution" and why would it cause Emacs problems but not problems in
>general with C programs which use pointers.  (If the HP9000 will move a
>block of memory after a pointer to it has been loaded, then the pointer is
>now no good... or is it?)

The HP9000-500 does (or "did" cause it is obsolete now) not move memory 
visible to the user (read: his process).
The S500 architecture uses different memory areas for different uses.
Or it uses hardware segments where UNIX uses software segments if you like it
that way.

Data segments are not executable in the same way text segments are.
It can be done (we had to do it for a Dutch university who wanted to port
their LISP compiler to the S500), but it is rather slow and tricky to do !

My feeling is that nobody with in depth knowledge of the S500 ever tried to
port emacs. Anyhow, it would not have been trivial.

Bert van Barneveld
HP Support, The Netherlands.