Date   : Mon, 22 Aug 1994 15:18:45 +0100
From   : jfid@... (James Fidell)
Subject: Re: xbeeb updated on ftp.pipex.net

James Bonfield wrote:

> Tim M. writes:
> 
> >The 'problem' is that Config.h assumes it is on a litle endian
> >machine, and defines LITTLE_ENDIAN. This breaks ReadWordAtPC on big
> >endian machines. However you do mention in the INSTALL file that the
> >LITTLE_ENDIAN flag may have to be changed. It might be worth putting
> >in a little bit more detail so that more people notice it....
> 
> Even on a little endian machine (Alpha) defining LITTLE_ENDIAN broke
> things for me!
>
> I haven't got around to debugging this yet. Also the optimiser on
> cc breaks the union hack in DoBranch(). I'm unsure if this is an
> optimiser problem, or a code problem. Does anyone know just how
> portable signed to unsigned conversion by use of a union is?

Would you send me a list of the sizes of all the basic data-types on
your machine ?  Perhaps I'll see a potential problem.

> With LITTLE_ENDIAN undefined, and optimisation turned off, I've now
> got xbeeb working on the Alpha, but with some odd caps lock problems.
> (I'm not even sure how to generate caps lock on this shrunken keyboard
> - all the obvious key combinations no longer work since I upgraded the
> OS.)

For some reason, it seems that the CAPS lock key has to be pressed twice
to get it to work correctly.  I don't know why, but I'll look into it
ASAP.

> Also, the palette swapping seems somewhat random - sometimes no new
> colourmap is allocated at all.

I have to admit to being confused by this.  Looks like a little more
verbose error handling is required...

James.

-- 
 "Yield to temptation --             |
  it may not pass your way again"    |     jfid@...        
                                     |
        - Lazarus Long               |              James Fidell