[csw-maintainers] 64-bit python

[Joshua Buysse]

>> Am 21.11.2008 um 15:38 schrieb Philip Brown:
>>> if not, then this might be a good reason to deviate from our usual
>>> practice of "ship 64bit with 32bit package", and make a separate
>>> "python64"  package.
>>
>> This goes equally well for Perl.
>
> *gag* *choke*... 64bit perl??? as if perl wasnt bloated enough?!!! :-}
>
> Actually, i'm not exactly sure why someone would want 64bit python  
> either.
> could someone enlighten us?

Sadly, I had to build a 64-bit python internally a while back.   
Researchers using bioinformatics toolkits (for purposes other than  
what was intended, but cool idea).  The code was written in Python,  
using FEBRL (http://datamining.anu.edu.au/projects/linkage.html). They  
were linking individual census records between different years, and  
the datafiles are in the tens or hundreds of gigs.  Damn thing needed  
to load the entire set into memory, and even using MPI, it was a beast.

Researchers do use scripting languages with huge data sets, especially  
in the biosciences.

--
Joshua Buysse, System Engineer
University of Minnesota, College of Liberal Arts

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in an American flag  
and carrying a cross."
   -- Sinclair Lewis


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