OT: Re: E11 / Windows ME question

From: Gene Buckle <geneb_at_deltasoft.com>
Date: Thu Feb 15 09:25:43 2001

> > >BTW, "98" will REFUSE to install unless there is a math coprocessor!
> > >What possible reasons could there be for an OS to need floating
> > >point??????
> On Wed, 14 Feb 2001, John Foust wrote:
> > An OS or an OS that comes with a slew of applications?
>
> A friend told me off-list that when copying a file, there is a graphic
> icon of each bit being moved. He suggested that the floating point was
> required for the OS due to some MICROS~1 OS programmer being unable to
> compute the parabolic trajectory of the bits without using floats.
> BTW, 95 will install on the same machine without the FPU (486SX).
> Which apps, etc. are different? Or did MICROS~1 simply do the FPU
> requirement to reduce the number of performance complaints about their
> apps?
>
I can't attest as to why the FPU is required, but the animation you see
when doing a file copy is just a very small, looped AVI file. No
"trajectory" calculation is going on at all.

g.
Received on Thu Feb 15 2001 - 09:25:43 GMT