OSX and 64-bit [Re: First working Win64 program!]

[Russel Winder]

On Sun, 2012-08-12 at 23:29 -0700, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
[…]
> OSX has a lot less backwards compatibility to worry about.

Not entirely true.

<semi-rant>
Apple's strategy appears to be that computers are non-upgradable,
non-repairable, disposable items that last until the next release:
everyone is supposed buy the latest version as soon as it comes out and
so be on the latest kit(*). Therefore Apple don't care about backward
compatibility in the way some other manufacturers do, e.g. JDK for the
last 17 years. Of course sometimes this backfires, cf. many white
MacBooks which have 64-bit processors but 32-bit boot PROMs. OSX detects
this and will not boot 64-bit. This leads to extraordinary problems
trying to compile some codes where the compiler detects 64-bit processor
and assumes a 64-bit kernel API. To build some applications I first have
to build the whole compiler toolchain so as to deal with this mixed
chaos.

(*) And as we know there are a lot of people who actually do this, which
is why there is a great market in second hand Apple kit, which is fine
for me, since it is reasonable kit at a reasonable price. Unlike new
kit.
</semi-rant>
-- 
Russel.
=============================================================================
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder at ekiga.net
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel at winder.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
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