4 ms·

Yes, the alternative to rewriting is changing the size and recompiling. OpenBSD somehow managed to pull it off.

• alkonaut 5y ago
  But the problem isn't really changing the OS to return a 64bit value where it used to return 32, the problem is all the applications that assumed it would be 32. By "pulling it off" you mean, they changed it and planes didn't crash around them?
  • rwaksmunski 5y ago
    Yes, stuff broke in the ports collection. Not sure about planes but at least one monitor exploded.
    • alkonaut 5y ago
      That still seems like software under the “control” of the OS maintainers. But most apps running on an OS are never seen by the people maintaining the OS. That’s why it’s such a tricky move to break compat with those apps X because you cant know what they are doing and how.