32-bit X libs?

[Peter Jeremy]

On Mon, 2006-Feb-06 01:17:39 -0500, Coleman Kane wrote:
>If FreeBSD/amd64 had a nice, easy way to add 32-bit programs to the
>system, then people would get comfortable with it, and we'd all just
>have to get used to running 32-bit everything on our nice, fancy 64-bit
>boxen.

OTOH, a quick check shows 484 ports that will run on i386 but not
amd64.  This includes things like OpenOffice.org, jdk prior to 1.5
(and even on 1.5, you don't get the browser plugin), lang/squeak (a
smalltalk dialect), several schemes, DivX, Win32 codecs and flash.
I'm also working some old software that isn't 64-bit clean yet (it
started on a PDP-11 and 32-bits was a shock to it).  [The actual
number of ports will be higher when slave ports are taken into
account].

I'd prefer to use 64-bit binaries but having to reboot to read a Word
document or PPT that someone has sent me, or watch a video in one of
the various proprietary formats is rather a nuisance.  (These are
generally jokes and so being able to see them is quite important :-).

The FreeBSD Project has traditionally focused on providing tools, not
mandating prolicies.  A fair amount of effort has gone into supporting
32-bit apps in the kernel.  It seems silly to basically waste this
effort by not providing any way to access the ports infrastructure in
32-bit mode.

I went through the 64-bit compatibility problems in late 1998 when I
got moved onto a project based on DEC Alphas - and found that an awful
lot of software believed that all the world was a VAX.  The situation
has gotten a lot better since then.

-- 
Peter Jeremy