From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,dd0ab03054055c44 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-02-08 12:25:55 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!news.rwth-aachen.de!newsserver.rrzn.uni-hannover.de!aix11.hrz.uni-oldenburg.de!uniol!zib-berlin.de!Germany.EU.net!wizard.pn.com!satisfied.elf.com!news.mathworks.com!panix!cmcl2!thecourier.cims.nyu.edu!thecourier.cims.nyu.edu!nobody From: dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: GNAT & Windows NT Date: 8 Feb 1995 08:59:47 -0500 Organization: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences Message-ID: <3haioj$dke@gnat.cs.nyu.edu> References: <3h3j4e$9kn@news.cais.com> <3h7vo0$19m@news.cais.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: gnat.cs.nyu.edu Date: 1995-02-08T08:59:47-05:00 List-Id: "They rename the distribution to correctly identify the platform" As you know, there are a zillion different PC platforms. All are user level compatible (assuming we are talking 386 or above). Unless you do something VERY weird (we have not), code running on the Pentium will run on the 386 and 486 and vice versa (actually there are more differences between the 386 and 486 at this level than between the 486 and Pentium). Generally you want to distribute code that is optimized for the Pentium, since this can produce substantial advantages in execution efficiency. As Richard Kenner has noted, GCC does not yet do much in the way of Pentium specific optimizations yet, but this may well change in the future. Pentium optimized code runs fine on a 486, i.e. there is no noticable penalty for such optimizations, which is why you always prefer to ship Pentium optimized code. The correct identification of the platform for our PC related releases is indeed 586, since these releases were built on a Pentium. Renaming them would be incorrect and misleading. Supplying additional ports that are built on the 486 would be extra work and pointless, since the code would not run faster on a 486. Understanding this will be important to the entire PC world as we begin to see Pentium-optimized code appear for general PC applications, and I am sure the same confusion will arise. We will add notes to our readme files to make sure that people (at least those who read the file!) do not get confused on this point. There are two ports of GNAT to NT, one built and distributed by NYU, which is available from the NYU FTP area, and one from Labtek. The Labtek folks specialize in NT support for GNAT, and are building some interesting NT specific tools, so if you are interested in using GNAT on NT, you should definitely contact them.