From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <c260f2812ac356d1b62f776dbb57db12@proxima.alt.za>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] 386
From: Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 17:26:13 +0200
In-Reply-To: <ee9e417a0510290808j32b3aabeuf912d35a2b7425a8@mail.gmail.com>
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> Is anyone out there using Plan 9 on 386 machines?
> I'm just wondering whether it's going to affect anyone
> if the default kernels assume they can use some of
> the 486 instructions (specifically INVLPG).

I think that's a slippery slope.  My AUTH server already crashes
whenever I forget that AWK uses floating point arithmetic.

Think of it this way: if one of Plan 9's strength is portability
across different architectures, it would be nice if this was
consistent.  By all means add the 486 instructions, but somehow allow
some documented way around it.

++L