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Postings from June 2012
It's generally known that perl has a lot of arbitrary 32-bit restrictions,
both in the code, and in the API; and that attempts to fix the former are
often hampered by the restrictions of the latter.
$ grep '^A' embed.fnc | grep 32 | wc -l
252
Perhaps its time to bite the bullet and give perl a whole new 64-bit-clean
API? For example, an av_fetch64() with IV rather than I32 args.
Initially these might just be wrappers around the existing functions
which croak for args > 2^31; but eventually over time as internals get
written to be 64-bit clean, then instead the old functions become wrappers
around the new.
Providing a completely new API might also give use the opportunity to
clean up other aspects of the API, not just 64-bit issues.
Or perhaps XS code could just have
#define USE_64BIT_API
and magically av_fetch has 64-bit args, and deprecated macros etc are no
longer defined?
I suspect the hardest bit may be dealing with public structs that have
32-bit members.
Anyway, this is all vague hand-waving, in an attempt to start a
discussion.
--
O Unicef Clearasil!
Gibberish and Drivel!
-- "Bored of the Rings"
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