[IronPython] Informal Poll: measuring IronPython performance under x64 OSes

[Curt Hagenlocher]

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 6:50 PM, Dan Eloff <dan.eloff at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I run IronPython on x64 Vista, but mostly only in Silverlight, which
> correct me if I'm wrong, is 32bit only. So right now, I don't care
> about x64 Vista. But when Silverlight runs in x64 it will matter to
> me.

By default, IE runs as a 32-bit application under x64.  I don't know
if Firefox even publishes a 64-bit version of their app for Windows,
and I'm pretty sure that Apple and Opera don't provide 64-bit versions
either.  There's a sort of chicken-and-egg problem there with respect
to plugins.  Until vendors like Adobe (Flash), Microsoft (Silverlight)
and Sun (Java) start providing their plugins in both 32-bit and 64-bit
forms, the 64-bit browser makes for a significantly less usable web
experience.  I tried for a while a year ago (on general principles :)
before giving up.  But until people have an actual motivation in using
a 64-bit browser under Windows, there's absolutely no incentive for
any vendor to spend the money on the platform.

Unless Windows 7 makes it possible to load 32-bit DLLs into 64-bit
processes, I suspect the 32-bit browser will be with us for the better
part of the next decade.

--
Curt Hagenlocher
curt at hagenlocher.org