32-bit to 64-bit - Obsolesence Pains Again? 184
robotsrule asks: "Having been in the computer industry a while I distinctly remember the pain of making the 16-bit to 32-bit transition, when Windows made the change to 32-bit support. Any developer who remember the joys of thunking and other kludges that were meant to help code conversions also remembers the arcane marathon debug sessions too. I have not been keeping up with the latest Microsoft Longhorn technical news, or the plans that the Linux community has for 64-bit platform support. Does anyone out there have a reliable prediction for the amount of system shock we are facing when either Longhorn or 64-bit Linux comes out? Will I lose all my favorite 32-bit development tools again as I watch the backward compatibility support dry up as the 64-bit O/S platforms are adopted? Or are the O/S manufacturers making happy noises about long-term support for existing development languages and tools?"
64 bit linux :-)? (Score:5, Insightful)
64-bit Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
when [...] 64-bit Linux comes out
64 bit Linux came out about a decade ago, when it was ported to the Alpha (and, unlike Windows NT for Alpha, it was a true 64 bit port).
Don't worry about it... (Score:5, Insightful)
True, a large part of that was due to MS-DOS being the platform of choice, but the speed with which you need to adapt to the 64-bit environment will be made up for by the relative ease of conversion. We're relatively insulated from the word size of the system, except for the size of 'int' in C, and we won't have to deal with memory managers or extenders -- that's all up to the OS.
Just keep in mind while you program to be flexible and avoid tying yourself to any OS particulars in an unnecessary way. It's a bump in the road, but nowhere near as bad as it used to be.
I expect to see 32-bit support in development tools for years yet. Microsoft's window of support seems to be five or more years for operating systems so you've got at least that much time.
Re:64 bit linux :-)? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't worry about it... (Score:2, Insightful)
How hard is it, (Score:4, Insightful)
got a program that will still be around in five years? telnet client? something?
great... whilst coding it for 64 bit, leave room for another bit, so in five years, you can 'turn it on' and be that much ahead of the game.
When 64-bit linux comes out? (Score:3, Insightful)
Who lets these crackheads post stories? Linux has been running native 64-bit on several platforms for years, and years, and years. Hell even in the x86 world, I've got ~9,000 Opteron CPUs chugging under the power of Linux in 64-bit mode at work, and they're just trashy lease boxes.
Re:64-bit Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
But not because of backwards compatibility issues so much as bad code, written by bad coders.
Most all were fixed many years ago. Thank the Debian Project for continuing to build against Alpha, and tracking bugs against it. Upstream then makes their s/w 64-bit clean for everyone.
Of course, if fewer programs were written in C, the problem would be minimized.
All the world is not
No, but 99.44% of it is...