Re: The Apple II is crap

[russotto@grace.speakeasy.net (Matthew Russotto)]

In article <20030815032734.29543.00000027@mb-m24.aol.com>,
Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:
>
>The move to 64-bit computing platforms, now starting, is
>similarly hampered by the entrenched base of 32-bit
>software.  The ubiquitous "punning" by developers between
>"integer" and "pointer" is a major obstacle to simple porting
>of code to a new addressing model, as it was in the past.

Rather difficult to avoid, unfortunately.

>The bad news is that these experiences demonstrate that
>programmers as a whole do not concern themselves much
>with the longevity of their code, happily limiting its portability
>to simplify their lives.

*sigh*.  It all sounds so simple in hindsight, doesn't it?  But using
the 8 high bits of the pointer to hold flags in 68000 systems saved
the 16 bits per pointer you'd have had to use to hold them anyway, not
to mention all the extra fetches you'd need to read and write the
things.  Portability to future systems is not the only nor even the
most important criterion programmers are constrained by.
-- 
Matthew T. Russotto                            mrussotto@speakeasy.net
"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in pursuit
of justice is no virtue."  But extreme restriction of liberty in pursuit of 
a modicum of security is a very expensive vice.