i686 optimization

[James "Doc" Livingston]

On Wed, 2006-06-14 at 23:10 +0100, Jack Wasey wrote:
> So why not have -i686, -k7 etc for packages where it does make a 
> difference? We already do this for kernel and to some extent for libc6. 
> Compression libs are used often in the background, and some rendering or 
> 3d stuff would definitely benefit and be used if falling back when no 
> fancy graphics card is present. What else? Encryption libs?
> 
> Why not auto-detect processor type on install, and choose a handful of 
> key k7 686 or whatever other sub-arch packages?

As others have mentioned, a much better solution is to detect the
processor type at runtime, and choose the best implementation. liboil is
a great concept, having a library devoted to having optimised base
operations which other libraries can use. Making more libraries and
applications use it (or similar) would be good.

Another good candidate is basic multimedia transformations: video
scaling, colourspace conversion, audio resampling, etc.


Cheers,

James "Doc" Livingston
-- 
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes ... That way
when you do criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes!