Re: Have we become too Intel x64 centered?

From: Gavin Lambert (boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2021-01-25 23:08:25

On 26/01/2021 10:53 am, Edward Diener wrote:
> Please name the Boost low level libraries which have specific code aimed 
> at the platform/architecture combination. I am not talking about code 
> for just Mac or Linux or Solaris or Windows but code that actually does 
> something different when run on Intel or ARM or AArch64 etc. I still 
> imagine that if such Boost libraries exist there are still very, very 
> few Boost libraries with dependence on such code. I am not arguing that 
> testing on non-Intel is in any way wrong but simply that very, very few 
> libraries should be impacted by different architectures in any way.

Boost.Atomic (and consequently Boost.Lockfree too) is the obvious one 
(that Niall already hinted at), but parts of Boost.Thread also apply.

Add to that list other low-level libraries such as Boost.Endian, 
Boost.Coroutine[2], and Boost.Fiber as well.

There are also some surprise gotchas in other libraries that do their 
own spinlocks or pointer-packing, such as Boost.SmartPtr and likely others.

Meanwhile other libraries like Boost.Serialization (and consumers of 
same) also make their own assumptions about things like endianness and 
type structure, which may not matter too much in isolation but becomes 
very important if you're intending to use it as a portable network or 
disk format.