OpenEuphoria

Pentiums and EU

• Posted by Hawke <mdeland at NWINFO.NET> Sep 23, 1998
• 398 views

I'm guessing Rob will have to answer this, so:

Rob, does ex.exe take advantage of extra features
found in 486/586 processors that aren't found
in 386's?

I could see serious benefits with having command
line switches for ex.exe that invoke processor
specific run-time enhancements.

ex -386      game.ex    --runs using only 386 commands
                        --usefull in determining if game.ex
                        --will run satisfactorily on 386's

ex -486      game.ex    --i've got one, so lets boost a bit

ex -586      game.ex    --i've got one, so lets boost to max

ex -586 -mmx game.ex    --even more improvements are possible

ex -P2       game.ex    --turns EU from "*FAST*" into
                        --"not safe without shoulder harnesses
                        --  and roll bars"

if all this hasn't been already done, i know it would be
asking a lot to make these changes.

alternatively:
===============
there is a bright side, i think, unless mistaken, watcom
has compiler switches that basically do this. could be
done today, available on the web page in hour or two.
i know i would DL another copy of ex.exe (called ex586.exe),
if you recompiled it with the -586 flag for watcom.
i'd DL it in a heartbeat. i think most on the list would too.

the nice thing about making 3-5 versions of ex.exe would be
that it wouldn't slow down ex.exe when running on a 386
because the code for the interpreter wouldn't have to be
changed by adding a buncha 'fluff' and a buncha testing to
see if it's using this or that processor.
the user would simply select the proper exX86.exe file to
execute their .ex file with.
nothing would be broken either. the only 'hard' part would
be distribution, but that is what batch files are for. :)

   make.bat     --shown for illustration, i do not mean to insult
                --*anyone's* intelligence here...
      copy makefile.386 makefile
      make
      copy makefile.486 makefile
      make
      copy makefile.586 makefile
      make
      copy makefile.mmx makefile --not sure if watcom does this
      make
      copy makefile.p2 makefile  --or if watcom does this either
      make
      pkzip euph20.zip \include\*.* \doc\*.* ex*.exe *.ex

it would only add a meager amount to the euph20.zip file...

or you could have eu20_386.zip,eu20_486.zip,eu20_586.zip
eu20_mmx.zip, & eu20_p2.zip instead...

*hoping* --Hawke'