Yo Hal! On Tue, 18 Nov 2025 16:02:22 -0800 Hal Murray <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> What's the problem with PPS and/or i386?
>
> > 32 bit ints and 32 bit longs. Making string formatting requie a
> > lof of casts to work on all platforms.
>
> That's ugly, but easy to fix and not the sort of thing that we are
> likely to get wrong as long as the compiler is happy.
And yet, we keep getting it wrong. Probably most patches fail to handle
32-bit
> We could make a macro to make it less ugly. Since we haven't done
> that yet, it probably isn't that much of a problem.
It is not just one thing. It pops up all over. Having macros for
all integer and pointer types would be a majopr obfuscation.
> > Power PC. As in older Apples.
>
> What does that have to do with PPS or i386?
Once again: PPS was a typo. It should be PPC, aka PowerPC.
What does it have to do? Because writing code that handles 32
bit int and 64 bits ints is harder than it looks. Mostly because
32 bits are rare these days and subitters either forgot how to
do it or never knew how do do it.
> Here is your comment that started this tangle:
> >> OTOH, I sure hope we can stop supporting PPS and i386 soon.
Yup. Still my hope.
> I still don't understand if and/or why you really want to stop
> supporting PPS or i386.
1) it is getting harder and harder to test. If we lose Fred then
we'll have no way to test, THen the bit rot will accelerate.
2) The Linux kernel is about to stop supporting them.
3) Debian is about to stop supporting them.
So it will not be up to us, the world is moving on, Firefox just gave up
on 32-bit. Do we have the resources to fight that tide?
> PPS is important for decent timekeeping. We could split it out from
> gpsd. Is the current support painful enough that we should work on
> that? What's the problem?
Once again, PPS was a typo for PPC. No one is suggesting downgrading PPS
support.
> Is there something about i386 that makes it harder to support than
> other 32 bit systems?
Nope. They are all getting harder to support.
RGDS
GARY
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