64 bit architectures and C/C++

[John R. MacMillan]

|For how long should we keep porting code, especially BAD CODE?  This sounds
|a lot like school systems that keep moving failing students up each year
|and we know what that results in.

Whether or not it's a good idea, people will keep porting bad code as
long as other people are willing to pay for it.

Users are really buying Spiffo 6.3.  They don't care how it's written;
they just like it.  So Monster Hardware, in an effort to boost sales,
wants to be able to sell their boxes as a platform for running Spiffo
6.3.  They don't care how it's written, they just want it.  The core
of Spiffo 6.3 is from Spiffo 1.0, and was written 10 years ago by 5
programmers who are now either VPs or no longer there, and who never
considered it would have to run on an MH1800 where the chars are 11
bits and ints are 33.

It happens.  Honest.  I suspect many of us know a Spiffo or two.

|IMHO, no code older than 8 years should be permitted to be ported and if
|it is found to be "bad" code then it must have been written more than 8
|years ago.

The first part simply won't happen if there's demand, and I'm not sure
I understand the second part.