[Python-Dev] Re: [Patches] PC\config.[hc] changes for Win64

[Guido van Rossum]

To help me understand the significance of win64 vs. win32, can you
list the major differences?  I thought that the main thing was that
pointers are 64 bits, and that otherwise the APIs are the same.  In
fact, I don't know if WIN64 refers to Windows running on 64-bit
machines (e.g. Alphas) only, or that it is possible to have win64 on a
32-bit machine (e.g. Pentium).

If it's mostly a matter of pointer size, this is almost completely
hidden at the Python level, and I don't think it's worth changing the
plaform name.  All of the changes that Trent found were really tests
for the presence of Windows APIs like the registry...

I could defend calling it Windows in comments but having sys.platform
be "win32".  Like uname on Solaris 2.7 returns SunOS 5.7 -- there's
too much old code that doesn't deserve to be broken.  (And it's not
like we have an excuse that it was always documented this way -- this
wasn't documented very clearly at all...)

It's-spelt-Raymond-Luxury-Yach-t-but-it's-pronounced-Throatwobbler-Mangrove,

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)