Re: Port Name: A Vote
Gwenole Beauchesne <gbeauchesne@mandrakesoft.com> writes:
> Hi,
>
>> True, but Debian is striving to be LSB-compliant. Gentoo doesn't
>> care about LSB compliance. I'm not sure about Mandrake's intentions
>> with regard to the LSB; I believe they were taking Debian's lead, as
>> > "amd64"
>
> Mandrakelinux 9.0 (Corporate Server 2.1) used "x86_64" as the port
> name. Next versions (9.2, 10.0) used "amd64" because that was AMD
> expectations and (i) I hadn't started the 9.2 port yet and (ii) a
> personal taste that "amd64" can be more optimally typed than "x86_64"
> and was elegant. ;-)
>
> At that time, none of other Linux distributor was willing to use
> "amd64" as the port name probably fearing a lot of changes to packages
> that will have to know about amd64-?-linux-gnu as configure strings. I
> opted for "amd64" for above-mentioned reasons and as a
> proof-of-concept that with proper helper scripts, it turns out to not
> be a problem.
So your changing the distributions name and the gnu name (what uname,
the kernel, gcc, binutils, config.sub/guess, ... say)?
> Nowadays, choice is more complicated with EM64T platforms getting
> around. Since both are ISA compatible (modulo 3dNow!), it would not
> make sense to introduce an "em64t" port name, at first sight. Besides,
> it's not fair to use "amd64" either in that case. Objectively, we
> would be left with "x86_64" which exactly means "64-bit extended x86
> architectures". After all, there were even LSB 1.x drafts mentioning
> x86_64, though you can read AMD64 in 2.0 drafts instead.
Great, got an url for that? This would be a major argument towards amd64.
> IMHO, "x86_64" is a better name to fullfill expectations from both
> parties. Desktop branding can then be performed at install time of the
> distribution.
>
> On the other hand, it has to be reminded that AMD did specify the
> 64-bit and resources extensions. As such, AMD64 could well define that
> architecture name (and port name).
>
> And here we go to "choice is complicated".
>
> Or create a new name. e.g. "ex86" aka extended/extensible x86
> architecture.
>
> Bye,
> Gwenolé.
MfG
Goswin
Reply to: