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> but since 64-bit x86 is so much cleaner it's not much of a problem compared to the whole 32-bit mess. I would not call x86-64 "cleaner" than x86-32. In many
by wolfgke 9y ago
> but since 64-bit x86 is so much cleaner it's not much of a problem compared to the whole 32-bit mess.
I would not call x86-64 "cleaner" than x86-32. In many senses it is much more messy than x86-32.
- MBCook 9y agoI remember people saying that, but I don't have experience with it myself. I'll take your word for it. They may have been referring to the fact that 64-bit runs in 65-but only, no choice to drop into/out of 16-bit, etc.
- wolfgke 9y ago> They may have been referring to the fact that 64-bit runs in 65-but only, no choice to drop into/out of 16-bit, etc Even in 64 bit mode it is possible to drop into 16 bit (protected) mode (code) if one wants to. What does not work is dropping into Virtual 8086 mode. GNU/Linux never supported 16 bit code. For Windows it would be possible in principle (and it even would IMHO sense to support this feature on 64 bit versions of Windows). On > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14246521 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14246521 I wrote something about this topic. TLDR: 64 bit Windows uses 32 bit handles, which will cause problems with 16 bit applications. But there are also people on HN who stated the opinion that while this makes implementing support for 16 bit applications on 64 bit Windows harder for Microsoft, it would have been far from impossible, thus this technical reason is a mere convenient pretense not to implement this feature.
- my123 9y agoActually, NTVDM on 64-bit Windows is implemented as a prototype - and it works.