2011/1/4 Lucas Nussbaum <lucas / lucas-nussbaum.net>:
> Hi,
>
> Continuing with questions :-)
>
> Debian currently supports a lot more platforms than Ruby. Using the
> Linux kernel, Debian supports Intel x86, Amd64, Intel IA-64, Sparc, Arm,
> Armel, Alpha, Mips (Big Endian), Mips (Little Endian), PowerPC. Using
> the Freebsd kernel and the GNU Libc, Debian supports x86 and amd64.
>
> It is usually considered good policy for software in Debian to work on
> all the architectures. In particular, that's the case for perl, python,
> and Lua.
>
> Ruby has several known problems with some architectures:
> 1.9.1 on sparc: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=593138
> and http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=545345
> 1.9.1 on kfreebsd: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=593139
> 1.9.1 on ia64: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=593141
> 1.9.1 on hppa (which is no longer supported, so it's less important):
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=593140
>
> Sometimes, this is caused by bugs in the libc or the kernel. But more
> often, it is caused by bugs in Ruby, especially in the threading code.
> When I reported a bug about Sparc, I got the answer that Sparc is not
> supported, and the bug was closed (see
> http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/show/1172 when redmine is back).

Recently, I've merged sh4 bugfix even though it is _not_ supported platform
because iwamatsu-san who debian sh4 maintainer made a patch and it's
enough cleaner. (see [ruby-core:32548])

That said, we are mortal, we can only debug our box. So, if a bug report
don't have enough information, we have no way to dig it.

That's no policy matter. We always welcome to contribution. At least
I think.

Thanks.

>
> It would be great if that policy could be discussed. Supporting many
> architectures is usually not that hard, and improves code quality also
> for the main architectures.
>
> If someone is interested in working on that, Debian maintainers could
> help with providing access to machines of the various architectures to
> help with debugging.
>
> - Lucas
>
>