From: anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at   
      
   Robert Finch  writes:   
   >Is the need for backwards compatibility killing things as technology has   
   >improved?   
      
   That is certainly the usual complaint by engineers who are hindered in   
   doing what they would otherwise like to to by backwards compatibility   
   requirements.  It's certainly easier to design on a clean slate.  OTOH   
   not all of the ideas that are prevented by backwards compatibility   
   requirements are good ideas.   
      
   Overall, as I mentioned in this thread, there is architectural   
   progress, in some cases (e.g., the establishment of 8/16/32/64-bit   
   machines) in ways that are not backwards-compatible.  So backwards   
   compatibility is not preventing all progress.   
      
   - anton   
   --   
   'Anyone trying for "industrial quality" ISA should avoid undefined behavior.'   
     Mitch Alsup,    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)