[CS-FSLUG] Query: 64-bit coding comparisons

[Marco Tedaldi]

Hi Ed et all
Ed Hurst wrote
> Does anyone on the list understand Win64 coding?
> 
No...

> Not so much for Win64. Is there something inherent in the field which  
> makes this difficult? Is MS hiding the Win7 64-bit building kits or  
> something? I don't doubt almost anything not tied directly to drivers and 
> such will run 32-bit on a 64-bit system, so that's not the question. I was
>  
> puzzled with the dearth of Win64 products compared to very wide selection 
> for Linux/BSD.
> 
You can run almost any 32 Application on Win64 without any problem. I think this is one of the main reasons, why there is not more natvie 64Bit software for Windows.
Only of you want to use more than 2G Address-Space for your application, you might get some benefits out of compiling your stuff for 64 Bit architecture.

On the downside 64bit apps tend to use more space on your harddrive and also in ram, which COULD make them slower to load and maybe execute.

So for a developer there is not much to win on the desktop with 64bit apps but a lot of work involved. As far as I know even MS-Office 07 is plain 32bit (ok, maybe they have both versions on the same media, but i'm quite sure there isn't).

For an operating system or server applications there is quite some reasons to run 64bit (Memory Management above 4G without the need for PAE, larger address space than 2GB for apps). But I think for Desktop apps there is just not enough pressure (and good reason) for a change.

Greets

Marco
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