Total Commander

Release 64-bit TC today and I bet that before Christmas majority of useful plugins will be available in 64-bit too.

I don't think the majority of TC plugin writers have access to 64-bit Windows.

petermad wrote:I don't think the majority of TC plugin writers have access to 64-bit Windows.

They can use Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only) trial version for 180 days. That's enough time to modify an existing or even to develop an entirely new plugin.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx



There is only one problem - no 64-bit TC for testing.

lr123 wrote:

petermad wrote:I don't think the majority of TC plugin writers have access to 64-bit Windows.

They can use Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only) trial version for 180 days. That's enough time to modify an existing or even to develop an entirely new plugin.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx



There is only one problem - no 64-bit TC for testing.

I don't think that people who have no 64-bit Windows will install 64-bit OS just to write 64-bit plugin.

petermad wrote:I don't think the majority of TC plugin writers have access to 64-bit Windows.

As I only have access to 32-bit Windows I would develop and test as 32-bit plugin and easily cross-compile as 64-bit plugin using MS Visual Studio compilers.

Hm, this seems to be the typical hen - egg - problem:

What has got to exist first, the hen or the egg?

In this case the answer is straight forward: the hen.

First there has got to be a 64-bit Total Commander (the hen).
Only then plugin writers will create 64-bit plugins (the eggs), because they need 64-bit Total Commander to test their 64-bit plugins.

The unanswered question, however, is: when will the hen come into existence

Karl

I will write a 64-bit -> 32-bit wrapper for plugins when I create a 64-bit version, as I did for the context menu (32->64bit). That should work for all well-behaving plugins except for Lister plugins, which need access to the parent handle.

when I create a 64-bit version

So it is no longer an an "if" question, but "when" question, whether a 64 bit version will be made ?

Yes, the future certainly is 64 bit. But it depends on the availability of 64-bit Delphi...

ghisler(Author) wrote:Yes, the future certainly is 64 bit. But it depends on the availability of 64-bit Delphi...

"We expect the 64-bit version of Delphi to be ready in mid-2010."

http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/39174

Unfortunately, you can't rely on that at all. AFAIK they have been expecting it since 2008 and still nothing. Note the "we are planning to release a preview of the 64-bit compiler in mid-2009" part. The article is at least year old, which is not exactly fresh. And the preview still doesn't exist today. So my personal guess is 2012. If you're an optimist, you might hope for 2011. ;)

Sob wrote:If you're an optimist, you might hope for 2011.

As a pessimist, I don't expect Delphi 64-bit to appear before 2013, at least a reliable version.

Maybe it's better to have a look at Lazarus then? Has anyone here worked with it yet?

ghisler(Author) wrote:Maybe it's better to have a look at Lazarus then?

Yes, you could try to develop a test version of TC 64-bit and evaluate the quality of Lazarus as well. I just installed Lazarus on my machine and played with it. It makes a good impression.

Maybe it's better to port the program to C++. Visual C++ is the de-facto standard for development on Windows. This could take longer initially but could be an investment that pays-off over time.

I'm for Lazarus because this will be done in the future make versions for different platforms.