Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU!mouse
From: mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: X11R4 libraries and -f68881 switch
Message-ID: <9002151158.AA02566@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 15 Feb 90 11:58:33 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 42

> By the way, it should be noted that if you're compiling with GCC, the
> GCC equivalent of -f68881 (-m68881) is the default.  When I started
> getting complaints from people about this after compiling R3 with GCC
> last year and requests that I ``fix'' the problem by recompiling with
> -fsoft (-msoft-float in GCC), I told them they were fixing the wrong
> problem.  The problem was their workstations were missing floating
> point hardware.  Given that the MC68881RC16C is only about $125 last
> time I looked, it's by far the most preferable solution unless you're
> a total pauper.

(I'd recommend -fswitch.  (I don't know the gcc equivalent.))

This strikes me as a somewhat arrogant attitude.  There are several
perfectly good reasons why the user may not be able to do this.

The user may not have the authority to spend any money on the machine,
and those who do don't see the need, after all, even you must admit
that the software does not require the 68881.  (Or do you lie when
asked such questions?)  Perhaps you think running X should be valuable
enough that each user should shell out $125 of their own when there's
no reason but your stubbornness why the software can't handle things
just fine?

The machine may belong to someone else.  Here at McGill, for example, I
know of a lab with some machines that belong to an outside
organization, and while I don't know for sure that this is true, it
strikes me as very plausible that making random hardware modifications
could easily lose them the machines altogether.

The user may not even know which end of a screwdriver to hold.  This
means calling in someone else to install the thing, which is likely to
run the price up pretty steeply.  Another possible reason requiring
calling in someone to install it is that making hardware changes can
cause the service company to break off the service contract.

If I had been one of your users last year I'd've just brought over my
own copy and built it with -fsoft.  (-msoft-float, whatever.)

					der Mouse

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