From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-Id: <200008301344.JAA28360@cse.psu.edu> To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Stack initialisation From: "rob pike" Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 09:44:33 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Topicbox-Message-UUID: 01137068-eac9-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 We didn't include Alef with the 3rd edition because it introduces a portability issue: it requires maintenance of a second compiler and set of libraries. We only had an Alef compiler for the 386, Mips, and Sparc, only two of which are current kernel architectures. We don't have an Alef compiler for the Alpha, Power PC, or ARM, which are. Rather than port the compiler and libraries, we decided to port the few Alef applications back to C. Otherwise, getting a new architecture running is just too much work. So I congratulate you on getting Alef running on the 386 again, but remind you that it wasn't included in the second edition for a reason. We're not going to be enthusiastic about redistributing Alef again unless someone is willing to do the other ports, and even that's probably not reason enough. Of course, you're free to redistribute it yourself to 2nd edition licensees, who are the only people likely to have old Alef programs lying around anyway. Sorry, guys, but it's not quite a pure PC world, at least not yet. -rob