On 4/9/2011 2:54 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote: >> On Sat, 9 Apr 2011 01:26:49 +0000 (UTC) >> >> Jesse Phillips <jessekphillip...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> There is not plan to have dmd a 64bit executable. There have been >>> reports that you can get it to build but support for it does not >>> exist. However if you are interested in writing 64bit programs the >>> 32bit version can still produce 64bit code with the -m64 flag. This >>> may work for BSD, though it was develop on Linux, I think someone >>> reported it worked? >> >> This really sucks and it means there won't be dmd2 in the official >> ports tree 'cause it's not 1st class citizen. :-( >> >> Otoh, I recall that Walter mentioned he would like to make dmd2 >> available for 64bit FreeBSD considering his servers use it. >> >> Well, we're turning to gdc2/ldc2... > > On the whole, Walter does not seem to think that it's worth making dmd a 64- > bit executable. I don't think that he's necessarily against _ever_ making it > a > 64-bit executable, but supporting 64-bit like that is extra work when he > already has a lot on his plate, and he seems to see the gain of having a 64- > bit dmd binary as being minimal. So, for now at least, we only get 32-bit dmd > binaries. But it's easy to get the 32-bit binary running on 64-bit linux, and > I'd expect that to be true with FreeBSD as well, so it's annoying, but it > still works. It might be better to sort out 64-bit dmd after dmd is more > stable with regards to generating 64-bit binaries anyway. > > So, yeah, it sucks that dmd is only a 32-bit binary, and there are currently > no plans for it become a 64-bit binary, but it works, and we finally have 64- > bit code generation. So, things are improving, and we may see a 64-bit binary > for dmd one of these days. I certainly don't understand why anyone would > switch to gdc or ldc because dmd is a 32-bit binary. Most 64-bit linux > distros > are multilib, and running 32-bit binaries is fairly easy. Maybe it's harder > with FreeBSD though. I don't know. It's your choice though. > > - Jonathan M Davis
And I'm sure that bug reports for dmd that were from a 64 bit build of the compiler itself would get addressed. So, while it might not come with a pre-built 64 bit binary, that's not a particularly large stumbling block.