Re: HEADSUP: ibcs2 and svr4 compat headed for history

From: Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH <allbery_at_ece.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 12:33:31 -0400
On Sat, 2004-06-26 at 12:20, Michael Nottebrock wrote:
> On Saturday 26 June 2004 17:43, Cordula's Web wrote:
> > > > > - Numerous third-party applications for SCO and Solaris/x86
> > > > > (e.g. backup solutions)
> > > >
> > > > Maple V for Solaris/x86.
> > >
> > > Is something wrong with Maple for Linux?  (Which is up to version 9.5,
> > > looks as if.)
> 
> Randomly quoting application doesn't really help anybody here, the question 
> is: Do they work (in whatever emulation).

That's one third of the question. Another third is that there has so far
been exactly one statement about its actual functionality (that a simple
"hello world" works); and the remainder is the amount of interest in
maintaining it.

Given that there doesn't seem to be widespread interest in keeping it
alive, it devolves onto those who *do* have an interest in it to adopt
it and keep it alive, or else let go.  Asking someone else to keep it
alive when there isn't widespread interest, and when they can't really
test it (with the commercial software packages that are its reason for
existence), can only lead to bitrot.

(Although another possibility did come up earlier:  if the iABI support
can be used as the core of a SPARC binary compatibility mechanism, then
it may be justifiable to keep it in place.  But if it requires
significant changes, best to move it into the attic and re-import the
modified version under the sparc tree when appropriate.)

> Perhaps it would be better to keep the compat bits as ports? It looks to me 
> like there is a certain interest in them, just not among src committers.

Makes sense.  For comparison, Linux iBCS/iABI support wasn't originally
intended to be part of the mainline kernel.

-- 
brandon s. allbery    [linux,solaris,freebsd,perl]     allbery_at_kf8nh.com
system administrator      [WAY too many hats]        allbery_at_ece.cmu.edu
electrical and computer engineering, carnegie mellon univ.         KF8NH
Received on Sat Jun 26 2004 - 14:33:46 UTC

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