On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 14:08 +0100, Axel Thimm wrote: > What is the difference? If a unit has been compiled with altivec and > the resulting binary calls something in this unit on a non-altivec > system your binary will still boom, or not? > > E.g. if we need to support non-altivec system then altivec must be > strictly banned unless - as you wrote - the software is smart enough > to do it at runtime (which is seldom). Not _so_ seldom, in Altivec-capable code. Programs like xine and mplayer get it right. There are parts which are compiled with -maltivec but they're conditionally called. > Are there relevant numbers of G3 systems out there that we want to > support (excluding the unreleased G3+altivec chip)? I don't know about G3 but there are relevant numbers of Altivec-less systems out there, since that includes POWER -- and in particular a bunch of our build machines. Do not build packages which use Altivec unconditionally -- always make it check at runtime, just as we do for MMX/SSE/etc. -- dwmw2 -- fedora-extras-list mailing list fedora-extras-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-extras-list
