3 ms·
x86 and POSIX are actually great comparisons to the current state of browsers. They all have well defined standards that everyone should follow in theory. In pr
by ben-schaaf 8y ago
x86 and POSIX are actually great comparisons to the current state of browsers. They all have well defined standards that everyone should follow in theory. In practice CPUs have bugs[0] that kernels and applications make a lot of effort to work around. There are also enough implementation/non-compliance quirks in POSIX[1][2] implementations to matter when porting. Just like all of the web standards, x86 and POSIX don't solve the compatibility problems that come from innovation.
[0] https://wiki.osdev.org/CPU_Bugs https://wiki.osdev.org/CPU_Bugs
[1] https://personal.opengroup.org/~ajosey/tr28-07-2003.txt https://personal.opengroup.org/~ajosey/tr28-07-2003.txt
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Standard_Base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Standard_Base