Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Tim Rentsch Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Flags (Re: arithmetic and endian history) Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:17:28 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 17 Message-ID: <86zewxo0o7.fsf@linuxsc.com> References: <10uks4f$1dqo$1@gal.iecc.com> <119en6p$qve$1@gal.iecc.com> <2026Sep29.100113@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <1790702502-5857@newsgrouper.org> <119h6a0$fiu$1@gal.iecc.com> <2026Oct1.110046@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <86tsn5pm2i.fsf@linuxsc.com> <2026Oct1.170516@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 16:17:29 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; logging-data="1421800"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/B36pAyw1V9cHAd1FL5fGwGKSw1w9/IME="; posting-host="18a74afe15b7c222d977d31c18068e17" User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:kv95EU/cldIoXf+Ch6GLNIb33v4= sha1:TghVZmHTTAIxN9wrnfWdj8vpygE= sha256:ufcdX5uZWaXC3lgYfAmwt+gnitPuZvKwZoZpMAAULtE= sha1:ExBeL5WMv5OjqHamY25xPKyM/j0= sha256:NujNObmOZyvXtirQkNJ15B/3tgZFy7sCt3e1fLvW4wc= Xref: csiph.com comp.arch:118358 anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) writes: > Tim Rentsch writes: > >> anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) writes: >> >>> My guess is that they use these two bits >>> because 1) when you don't know any better, minimizing the number of >>> flag bits looks like a good idea, and 2) they did not know any >>> better. >> >> Do you really mean to suggest that Gene Amdahl, Gerrit Blaauw and >> Fred Brooks didn't know what they were doing? > > As far as flags are concerned, yes. [...] Your hubris is stunning.