[csw-maintainers] 32bit vs 64bit

[Ben Walton]

Excerpts from rupert THURNER's message of Tue Jul 19 22:51:14 -0400 2011:

Hi Rupert,

> is there a special reason that the recipies deal with 32bit and
> 64bit versions of our builds? could not gar just hardcode: if run on
> x86/current9x, build 32 bit, if run on sparc or unstable9x, build
> 64bit?

The recipes only do a few things (typically) with 32 vs 64.  The first
is turning on the 64-bit support and the second is telling GAR whether
or not to use isaexec.

Are you suggesting that we enable 64-bit for everything by default?

There has been some discussion about this in irc.  More and more major
things (perl, python, php, ruby for example) are beginning to require
64-bit builds.  This requires more and more libraries to ahve 64-bit
support.  Once that is in place, building 64-bit binaries can be done
too.

Is it time to flip this default to on?  Some apps would benefit, as
you noted.  Others wouldn't, but if those don't use isaexec, the
32-bit would still be the default.

I think I'd support this change although it would take a long time to
get everything updated.  Maybe a post-dublin target?

Thanks
-Ben
--
Ben Walton
Systems Programmer - CHASS
University of Toronto
C:416.407.5610 | W:416.978.4302