[Wine] What constitutes a good backtrace?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Monday 10 March 2008, Dan Kegel wrote:
> Geoff Streeter <geoff at dyalog.com> wrote:
> >  Funny, my view is the exact opposite. I first used 64 bit on a Dec
> > Alpha in about 1993. I have been wondering ever since why anybody
> > would want to cling to 32 bit.
>
> Abstractly, I agree.  But there are so many gotchas and so little
> payoff for desktop users in the switch to 64 bits that it seems
> premature, at least for people who don't want to help ferret out
> the remaining problems.
>
> > I had better declare my bias; I implement an APL interpreter. A
> >significant number of my users are bouncing off address space
> >restrictions and are being held back because their users are
> > constrained to use 32 bit windows as a platform.
>
> Sure, your users have a real reason to go 64 bits.  The
> average desktop user doesn't.

I have to say that I am with Dan on this one. Off the top of my head, I 
can't think of any *desktop* app that requires the full addressing 
capabilities of 64 bit. Come to think of it, I can't think of any 
desktop or notebook *machines* that have more than 4G of RAM installed. 
Plus, there are a whole slew of desktop apps that just don't work right 
on 64bit systems - starting with flash.

In the general case on x86 cpus, 64bit desktops tend to supply the user 
with a whole large set of brand new shiny problems while solving no 
existing ones. There are always exceptions of course - sometimes I 
would like to demo two certain column-based database and an abstraction 
layer along with reporting tools, ETL stuff and have the whole lot 
delivered to the user from JBoss. Sadly, this lot will never run on a 
notebook, so the demo consists of dragging several machines in boxes 
off to the client's premises. But that's an obscure case...

Servers - different story. I'm very close to the point where I simply 
will not support new apps deployed on new 32 bit systems. Current needs 
in *this* area for the majority of customers I have to deal with 
already go beyond what 32 bit can deliver.

This isn't to say that there is something wrong with 32 bit code - there 
isn't. It's just that the code lying around for desktop use is written 
for 32 bit and also satisfies current and foreseeable future needs.



-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com