[NBLUG/talk] LWN: i386 and x86_64: back together?

[Scott Doty]

Hey, I ran across this article regarding the kernel's i386 vs. x86_64
support -- specifically, it addresses the possibility of merging the two
trees...

   http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/243704/ad5f121a6394f889/

( BTW, LWN now allows subscribers to share subscriber-only content with
non-subscribers through their "SubscriberLink" urls... as you see
above. :) )

obquote:

 _ _ _ _ _ _ _
In many (if not most) cases, there is a great deal of common code in the two
files, and that common code is left there. The idea at this stage of the
game is to get the two architecture trees together without affecting the
resulting kernel; that is probably the only way that such a big change would
ever be accepted. Once things have been merged, the opportunities for
eliminating duplicated code between individual files will become more
apparent - the files will usually be right next to each other. One imagines
that an army of code janitors would swoop in to do this work, much of which
would be relatively straightforward. Once it's done, we would have a shiny
new, merged architecture with duplicated code squeezed out, and everybody
would be happy.

Or maybe not. . .
 _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 -Scott