On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 09:30:42 +0800, Miguel A Paraz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What are "32-bit apps" with regards to open source? Pardon my > ignorance, but if you recompile them yourself, or they are provided > with the distribution, isn't the binary code now using the 64-bit > general registers? Or, is gcc not that smart yet, or the app can't > take advantage anyway. I'm talking about PostgreSQL, MySQL, and maybe > the Internet servers.
There are some applications, unfortunately, that strictly relies on the word size of a certain platform. For example (theoretical example lang), a program works perfectly on 32-bit platform with "int" defined on that platform as 32-bit integer. But when compiled on a 64-bit platform wherein "int" is now 64-bit, the program now produces strange behaviour because the program is coded to assume 32-bit behavior. Take 0xFFFFFFFF + 1 for example. Let's say the program is expecting this to become "0", but because on a 64-bit platform, 0xFFFFFFFF is now 64-bit, 0xFFFFFFFF + 1 now becomes 0x010000000000. Yeah, I know this is bad coding, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of programs out there coded this way. -- Gideon N. Guillen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Take back the web! Download Firefox Today! http://getfirefox.com -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
