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Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 22:19:47 +0200
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
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To: "Dorel Zamfir" <dorel_z AT ics-iq DOT com>
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In-reply-to: <a53sd3$c58$1@newstest.laserlink.net> (dorel_z@ics-iq.com)
Subject: Re: RHIDE debugger fails to start on board without floating point unit
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> From: "Dorel Zamfir" <dorel_z AT ics-iq DOT com>
> Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
> Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 09:09:22 -0800
> 
> I don't understand why the debugger itself would require floating
> point support

I tried to explain why: the debugger doesn't know whether the program
being debugged will use floating point, so it assumes it will.
Therefore, it saves the state of the FP emulator before running the
debuggee, so that any FP instructions issued by the debuggee won't
affect the debugger.  For example, imagine that the program being
debugged changes the x87 rounding mode.

Saving the state of the FP coprocessor requires an FP instruction.