TC for Win64 can be in 2008

[Alextp]

It seems, TC for Win x64 can be compiled at 2008.
See Delphi roadmap:

http://bdn.borland.com/article/images/33519/thumb2.png

Whole article:
http://bdn.borland.com/article/33519

Let's wait.

[Flint]

Are you sure, TC for Win64 really will be in 2008? I would say, it can be in 2008. Besides, I'm not sure there is need in 64-bit TC version. The only disadvantage of 32-bit TC in Win64 is not resolving substituted system folders like SysWOW64, but this can be solved by Wow64EnableWow64FsRedirection call. I hope, this will be made in 7.0.

[Alextp]

Of cource: can be. So it will be not earlier than in 2008.

[karlchen]

Hi,

just my irrelevant point of view on the need for a 64bit version of TC for 64bit versions of Windows:

At present the most commonly used Windows versions very likely are 32bit versions of Windows 2000, WinXP and Win2003, hm, and maybe Win98/WinME (brr, hybrids ).
The most commonly used TC version on these Windows platforms very likely is 32bit TC.
I simply assume no-one would be willing to accept the shortcomings of using 16bit TC on 32bit Windows, e.g. lack of long filename support.

In the course of the next 2 or 3 years, 64bit Windows will take the place of 32bit Windows. Therefore a filemanager for a 64bit Windows will have to be a genuine 64bit application as well. If it is not it will suffer from the limited support for 32bit applications implemented in 64bit Windows.

If there is no 64bit version of TC available once the majority of users has switched to 64bit versions of Windows, TC will lose ground quickly.

I do not run a 16bit filemanager on 32bit Windows, and I will definitely not run a 32bit filemanager on a 64bit Windows if this means losing functionality. Today I run TC because it is a much better filemanager than Explorer and can do a lot of things Explorer cannot, but I will not run a 32bit TC on 64bit Windows, if it does not perform better than Explorer any longer, just because it runs in a limited 32bit sandbox.
Already today, one of the major drawbacks of 32bit TC is the lack of full unicode support., i.e. it does not fully support current Windows versions.

Kind regards,
Karl

[Sir_SiLvA]

In the course of the next 2 or 3 years, 64bit Windows will take the place of 32bit Windows.

*ROTFL*

[karlchen]

In the course of the next 2 or 3 years, 64bit Windows will take the place of 32bit Windows.

*ROTFL*

What is so funny about my assumption?
You think it will take less than 2 years?
You think it will take more than 3 years?
You think it will not happen at all?

Windows 3.x (16bit) was replaced by Windows 9x/ME (16/32bit hybrid). Windows NT based systems are ruling now (32bit).
There are quite a few new 64bit processors around, running them in 32bit compatibility mode is not really efficient.
Windows 64bit versions do exist.
So I do not see why computer vendors should not start selling new systems with 64bit OS and software pre-installed in the course of the next years.

It is not so much a question of if we users like it, if we need it, but if we will have a chance of not using it.

Karl

[Flint]

karlchen

What is so funny about my assumption?
You think it will take less than 2 years?
You think it will take more than 3 years?
You think it will not happen at all?

I personally think that it will take much more than 3 years. Currently, there is no such enthusiasm with porting applications and creating new ones for Win64, as it was when Win95 with 32-bit appeared. Maybe, 64-bit Windows Vista will become more popular than 32-bit Vista, but there still older Windows versions will be used. Even now many people use Win98 though it was released 8 years ago. And 64-bit Windows versions have been released only now (about a year ago).

Also, there is such a problem: there are no drivers and programs for Win64 -> the users do not want to use Win64 -> the software authors do not want to waste their time porting their applications to 64-bit systems (only few users will buy them) -> there are no drivers and programs for this system. A vicious circle...

For example, I have Athlon64-based system. But I cannot work in WinXP x64, because there is no good antivirus, no good firewall, no drivers for my 3COM network card...

[karlchen]

Hi, Flint.

Maybe you are right and my estimated time span of 2-3 years is too short. Maybe the large number of 32bit Windows platforms (incl. Win9x) and the large number of existing 32bit software will slow down the migration process to the 64bit world.

This will depend, too, on the availability of 64bit hardware drivers which is still low as you correctly pointed out. (MS won't like this, will they. Might cost them a lot of money. But this is not the thing I will spend too many thoughts on.)

Anyway, Christian will have the time needed to check out if porting TC to 64bit is feasible and if so finish this task in timely manner.

Karl

[ghisler(Author)]

I also think that 2-3 years are too short. The advantage of 32-bit over 16-bit was much larger than 64-bit over 32-bit. Only large database applications really profit from 64-bit, because they can address more than 4 GB with one pointer. The big problem with 64-bit is that all plugins will have to be ported too, because a 64-bit program cannot use 32-bit dlls. Microsoft seem to have forgotten a "thunking" mechanism as they offered between 16- and 32-bit applications.

Therefore a 64-bit version would only become interesting when 64-bit systems would get a reasonably large market share. Otherwise you will see the same problem with TC as with Internet Explorer: ActiveX controls and browser extensions almost exclusively exists in 32-bit versions...

[Hacker]

[mod]Some OT posts have been split to [OT] 64-bit software discussion.

Hacker (Moderator)[/mod]