[Gambas-devel] 64 bits branch merge

[Benoit Minisini]

On jeudi 17 janvier 2008, Rob wrote:
> On Thursday 17 January 2008 16:45, Benoit Minisini wrote:
> > Now I'm doing the same merge for the 2.0 branches, so that we have
> > a 64 bits version of Gambas 2!
>
> Sweet! You managed to do it without changing the bytecode format?
>
> Rob
>

The bytecode is not the problem there. But there are little flaws in the 
object file format that cannot be fixed without changing it.

The main consequence is that if you use the Pointer datatype, you must 
recompile your project if you go from a 32 bits OS to a 64 bits OS, or the 
contrary. 

Gambas executable that do not use the Pointer datatype can run indifferently 
on 32 bits OS or 64 bits OS.

Note that 64 bits interpreter use more memory than the 32 bits one, and that 
loading classes is slower. Because the object file format was designed with 
32 bits pointer in mind, not 64 bits.

Regards,

-- 
Benoit Minisini