On Fri, 20 Jan 2006, Roger Weeks wrote:
Why? Because I want to know exactly how the binary was built. I want to know that it's specifically compiled for my particular machine. I've had too many weird problems with RPM packages - and DEB packages for that matter - that proclaimed themselves to be i586 or i686 when in fact they were i386.
If your x86-based machine is having "weird problems" other than simply running a couple % slower on i386-compiled code, you have a lot more worries than just software or compilers. <evil grin>
(I'm not playing devil's advocate, just the part of pedant wrt the -- perhaps unintended -- inference that i386-compatible binaries have problems on newer x86 architectures. They shouldn't; rather, they just run a fraction slower, because the better extended opcodes introduced in the 486 and later lines are not being used.)
-- -- Todd Vierling <tv@duh.org> <tv@pobox.com> <todd@vierling.name>