Re: Integers on 64-bit machines

anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) writes:
> No, the 286 guys took over the C compiler groups of MIPS and DEC and
> invented the I32LP64 model, so that Unix programmers had to suffer
> just as much as DOS programmers used to. But that's water down
> the river.


That's not the way I recall it and I was working on the Alpha Unix C
compiler at the time. All of us, preferred the ILP64 model--the
instruction set was much better suited to that model. However, we had
some GNU software that wouldn't work (at that time) if ints were 64
bits--I don't recall whether it was emacs or gcc or something else
important. Therefore, since we needed to get something out-the-door
without rewriting that software into an alpha specific cul-de-sac
version, we did the I32LP64 model with a special hack that all "user
space" addresses actually fit in 32 bits, so that the machine would
look like I32L64P32 when needed. I'm sure to some that looked like a
hack, but it seemed like an elegant hack to me. It wasn't what we
wanted, but it allowed the assumption that-all-the-world-was-a-vax to
persist a little bit longer, when very few applications were 64 bit
ready.


Just my recollections,
-Chris


*****************************************************************************
Chris Clark Internet : compres@world.std.com
Compiler Resources, Inc. Web Site : http://world.std.com/~compres
23 Bailey Rd voice : (508) 435-5016
Berlin, MA 01503 USA fax : (978) 838-0263 (24 hours)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.