64 bit DMD binary on the Mac

[Michel Fortin]

On 2011-06-28 15:39:42 -0400, Walter Bright <newshound2 at digitalmars.com> said:

> On 6/28/2011 12:13 PM, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
>> Since most of the applications and most the libraries (basically all that ships
>> with Mac OS X) are universal there's usually no problem of 
>> running/building both
>> 32 and 64bit software.
> 
> I'll explain the motivation for 64 bit only DMD binaries:
> 
> 1. It cuts the testing time in half. This is a significant deal for me, 
> as adding another hour to the test cycle slows things down a lot.
> 
> 2. It speeds downloading the dmd package.
> 
> The only reason to have a 32 bit binary is if there are x86 Macs 10.5 
> or later that are incapable of running 64 bit code.

Well, you could ship the next DMD version 64-bit only and of you get 
complains you bring back the 32-bit version as a universal binary.

But you'll definitely rule out users of Apple's early Intel computers. 
I think the last Apple model with a 32-bit CPU was the "Mac Mini (Late 
2006)", which was replaced mid 2007 with a Core 2 Duo model.

As for increasing the download speed, you could try one of these too:

* separate per-OS packages
* separate source package
* separate documentation package
* faster server


-- 
Michel Fortin
michel.fortin at michelf.com
http://michelf.com/