Re: Y21C Bug

["Tarjei T. Jensen" <tarjei.jensen@kvaerner.com>]

Robert Dewar wrote in message <84t966$be0$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...
>In article <84sltt$7s3@ftp.kvaerner.com>,
>  "Tarjei T. Jensen" <tarjei.jensen@kvaerner.com> wrote:
>> That does not change the fact that it is very unlikely that
>> there will be any machines with a 32bit Unix outside museums
>> in 2038 and that they will not run out of time any time soon.
>
>But all 64-bit unixes support 32-bit applications! I am
>including here Solaris, DEC-Unix, IRIX.

All vendors support old 32bit applications, but I expect with increasing
difficulty. New 32bit applications is just a matter of deciding whether
integers and pointers are 32 or 64 bits. time_t will still be 64 bit.

I expect support for creating old type 32bit applications to be phased out
within the next five years. I expect support for old type 32bit applications to
be phased out within 10 years from now. I expect Unixes - even those which run
on 32 bit systems - to be 64 bit (compliant) by the end of the decade.

The reason for the disappearance will simply be that it costs money to maintain
these environments. And it will be a long time since anybody created 32 bit
applications which are not 64 bit compliant.

I expect the y2k transition to have weeded quite heavily in the applications
used.

>Then you are definitely not quite up on things, given that
>Linux most often is running on x86 machines which are 32-bits
>by nature.


It could still be a 64 bit operating system running on a 32 bit CPU.

>Will the ia-32 have disappeared 30 years from now? I would not
>be so sure of the answer to this :-)


If it is around and Unix or Linux is still with us, it will most likely be a 64
bit operating system which is run on a 32 bit computer.

Greetings,