=> -----Original Message----- => From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] => [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alan Bourke => Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 03:59 => To: [email protected] => Subject: RE: VFP Up in Tiobe Index => => Doesn't the fact that Python is open source and written in C => mean that as long as it and its main libraries are compliant => C then it can be ported easily to any new platform that => might appear? There is a C compiler for everything, => Commodore 64 included. => -- => => Alan Bourke
I would like to throw in my experience in this regard. Source code is source code (obviously) and theoretically conforms to some language standard. However, every compiler that adheres to the standard is different from every other compiler that adheres to the standard. If the compilers were exactly the same, you would not need two of them. Differences in computer architecture and operating system requirements will, of necessity, produce different executables. My very first job in this business was to convert FORTRAN programs from IBM 7090 Scientific to IBM Series 360. The programs were standard FORTRAN and the compilers were standard FORTRAN, so why was a conversion needed? Different architectures and environments. One machine used 36-bit words, the other used 8-bit bytes. One environment used EBCDIC encoding and the other used something different (can't remember). Other differences such as 1's complement or 2's complement arithmetic are quite significant when it comes to producing the same results. 1+1+1+1 is not always the same as 2+2 or 2x2 or 2^2 even on a single computer. Look at any sophisticated software that is marketed as "all platforms" and you will find different versions for each platform ... even Java ... hell, especially Java. Open source or closed source doesn't make a difference either. Every flavor produces a different taste. Comments online or off always welcome. HALinNY _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
