Re: 64bit support
- Posted by mattlewis (admin) Mar 02, 2009
- 1073 views
(This isn't perfect, I believe there are some 64bit values that won't fit in an atom.)
True, this is not perfect and quite frightening 
. Converting 64 bit pointers to floating point values does not seem to be a good idea. Are there any plans to change this?
Currently, Euphoria can't be built as a 64-bit application, so as far as Euphoria is concerned, there is no such thing as a 64-bit pointer. Since a double floating point only has 52-bits in the mantissa, it's correct that an atom cannot represent all 64-bit integers.
At some point in the future, I'm sure that Euphoria will be able to be built as a 64-bit application. It's impossible to say when that might happen, however. I, for one, don't have access to a 64-bit system. My personal feelings are that 64-bit desktop systems aren't ready for prime time (servers are an entirely different story). I can say that I'm not planning on making the jump to 64-bits any time soon (even without current financial constraints ).
There is likely to be considerable work involved in porting Euphoria to 64-bits. The assumption of 32-bits is very ingrained into the code, and while it's not an impossible task to make the jump to 64-bits, it's far from trivial. And for the record, the assumptions about 32-bits are part of why euphoria is so fast.
Matt
