Re: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition ---> Delphi 2005 x64 Edition?

From: Bob Dawson (bdawson_at_idtdna.com)
Date: 01/31/05 

Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 09:07:24 -0600

"Will DeWitt Jr." wrote
>
> I've done my level best to make a good case.

You've made a case that 64bit hardware and OSs are here now or coming very
shortly. But no one really disputes that, so it's not an effective point.
You've done little to address the issue of the installed base other than to
claim that everyone will be rushing to buy the latest and greatest, a claim
I find extremely unlikely. Nor have you addressed the question of why
mainstream developers would need 64bit--where are the benefits for
non-CPU-bound programs that don't engage in extended calculation loops, or
that don't require a gig of memory? Why should I, as a business programmer,
particularly care about 64bit if it provides a 2-4x improvement only in
things I don't do?

These aren't technical questions, they're marketing questions: how many
different types of programs benefit, how many different types of
programmers, and by how much. They determine potential market pressure for a
platform revolution.

I appreciate the fact that a 64bit program might reduce payroll calculation
from 2 hours to a half hour (don't recall if this was your exampe or not),
but the fact remains that very few programs undertake such tasks--even in
the example given it works out to one employee per 5000, and that's just not
a market. The things my programs do (or actually the programs into which my
code is embedded) take seconds or less, or users start to complain. DB
access and object model complexity are my enemies, not matrix math. User
interaction is the chief wait state. Do you have any evidence at all to show
that that's not normal? What would 64bit do for me?

bobD

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