Re: AIX PPC JIT warning

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 01:05:18 -0700, Jeff Clites <jclites@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Recently config/gen/platform/darwin/asm.s was added, containing
> Parrot_ppc_jit_restore_nonvolatile_registers(). Corresponding code also
> needs to be added to config/gen/platform/aix/asm.s -- Parrot should
> fail to link on AIX currently, without this. I didn't try to update the
> AIX asm.s myself, since I wasn't confident that I could do this
> correctly without having a way to test.
> 
> So, someone with AIX asm expertise, please take a look.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> JEff
> 
> 

Worry not, it's already broken.  I've been unable to test the AIX/PPC
JIT since ICU went in.  The configuration for ICU (at least as of 2.6)
supports only a 64-bit build, while aix/asm.s is 32-bit only (the
linker claims the .o is corrupt if assembled with OBJECT_MODE=64).

To get it working again, one of three things needs to happen:

1. ICU becomes optional again (please!).
2. PPC64 JIT code is written which can be morphed into POWER code.
Transforming PPC32->POWER was mostly straightforward, so hopefully
64-bit will be as well.
3. ICU's configure starts to support 32-bit compiles.  This might
happen with 3.0/CVS already, but I haven't checked.

1 is necessary anyway, but it doesn't seem like a high priority.  2 is
best in the long run, but requires somebody who knows more about PPC64
ASM than I do to get started.  I don't know if 3 has any chance of
happening upstream, but I doubt there's anybody working on Parrot who
wants to deal with it.

If somebody can help with one or more of these, I can try to get it
going on AIX 4.3.3 once again.

Adam