How should/does Debian adapt to various hardware features?

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

Since the MIPS port of Debian supposedly works on pretty much any MIPS
machine, that means it both works on machines like the old SGIs with
their massive floating-point engines, and on home routers where the CPU
doesn't even have any hardware floating point support.

How does Debian handle this?  Do `mipsel' packages always try to use the
FPU-less version of libraries (e.g. libvorbisidec), or always the
FPU-full version, or is it chosen arbitrarily on a case by case basis?

As a user, how can I make sure that I get the package version best
adapted to my hardware platform?


        Stefan