Constant byteorder macros.

[Alan Cox]

> * people may want to extract parts of the kernel to reuse them in
>  other environments, with other compilers

Its very hard to do so. The only people who did it were the Linux 8086 folks.

> * people may want to port the kernel to an (existing or future) architecture
>  where gcc is not ported, or produces code much inferior to other compilers.

We can address that when it occurs, in fact they can address it. Writing
poorer systems now just "in case" is a bad choice. Its one of the big
differences between "software engineering" and how free software evolves.

Software engineering generates complex and very complete reusable objects.
Free software generates simple, incomplete objects that do what is actually
currently needed and can be extended later

Alan


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