On 2007-02-12 15:51 +0100, David Fokkema wrote: > Hi group, > > Regarding floating point operations in ImageMagick / NetPBM there were > suggestions to try out the EABI port. Right now, that seems a bit > painful. However, on the Debian EABI port page in the wiki it says that > the current way of working (oldabi) is about ten times slower than a > program compiled with softfloat, if I understand correctly. I tried > simply to use an -msoft-float compiler switch. That issued a 'missing > -lfloat' error and that seems to be a very old library removed from > debian. IEEE softfloat is software released a long time ago which only > creates an object file and doesn't have an ARM template??? > > I'm really confused. > > Is it possible for me to just compile ImageMagick / NetPBM with some > sort of softfloat support which doesn't generate hard illegal > instruction faults and how could I do that?
In a word: No. You can't (easily) mix soft-float compiled binaries with non-soft-float compiled binaries on existing arm. (that's one major reason why EABI/armel will imporve people's lives - this sort of thing becomes possible). The problem is that you can't link soft-float and hard-float binaries. To built it with soft-float requires all the libraries to also be soft-float so that implies a lot of rebuilding and static-linking. Fixing netpbm to resize without doing FP (on arm) might not be a huge job - I have no idea. It would certainly be appreciated by other people using arm boxes in the way you are - soft-float is still very slow in comparison to integer algorithms. FP is often used quite gratuitously by developers unfamiliar with the idea that it might not be avilable. Wookey -- Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK Tel +44 (0) 1223 811679 work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/ play: http://wookware.org/ -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
