[Pythonmac-SIG] Regarding universal python framework....

[Christopher Barker]

Hi all,

I had a question/comment from a numpy/Scipy developer that I was asked 
to forward on:

> > To get the "definition" of "universal" I went to
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Binaries
> >
> > the last paragraph says:
> > Apple's Xcode 2.4 takes the concept of universal binaries even
> > further, by allowing four-architecture binaries to be created (32 and
> > 64 bit for both Intel and PowerPC), therefore allowing a single
> > executable to take full advantage of the CPU capabilities of any Mac
> > OS X machine

What are folk's thoughts on building "quad binary" universal builds in 
the future? Is there much point? Are there any 64bit Intel Macs? What 
difference might a 64bit build make on a G5?

For the app in mind, this is the issue:

I am interested in 64-bit because it is supposed to be able to
open >4GB data files in memmap mode (that is, you could treat any
large data set like a normal numpy array and *instantaneously* access
sub-data without ever loading the entire file. Note that this works
even with small amounts of physical memory, only the (theoretical)
memory address space has to be 64bit.)

thoughts?

-Chris


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Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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