machine/platform separation

[Simon 'corecode' Schubert]

Matthew Dillon wrote:
    Part of the problem is that I only separated the code into two
    physical pieces (cpu and machine architectures) when I should have
    separated it into three (cpu, machine, and platform).  At the time I
    felt three was too many.  I even created three built-in MAKE variables,
    I just named them badly and didn't go far enough.
where is the difference between platform and machine?

can't we use:

cpu == arch (== machine?):
- i386
- amd64
platform:
- i386
- amd64
- vkernel
and have everything covered?

does it *have* to be a different name for platform and cpu?  i mean, that's two different namespaces, i do not see any harm using i386 as a platform name.  my goal is to keep things as easy as possible.  a cross-build should just require TARGET_ARCH=amd64, or fwiw, TARGET_PLATFORM=vkernel.  but the nomenclature should be sensible and follow POLA.

cheers
 simon
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