On 27.01.2017 06:13, Terry Reedy wrote: > On 1/26/2017 5:32 PM, M.-A. Lemburg wrote: > >> Many applications on Windows are still 32-bit applications and >> unless you process large amounts of data, a 32-bit Python >> system is well worth using. In some cases, it's even needed, >> e.g. if you have to use an extension which links to a 32-bit >> library. > > I look through the list of a few hundred windows packages at > http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/ > > The two packages that require CUDA 8 and CUDNN are 64-bit only. As far > as I saw in a careful check, all other windows binaries are available in > both 32- and 64-bit versions. The situation may be different on PyPI, > but win64 will cover most thing likely to be used by a beginner.
32-bit vs. 64-bit is a still very much a conscious choice on Windows x64, and so whether or not a beginner chose to install 3rd party libs as 32-bit or 64-bit version is not something we can really tell from looking at the browser info. It would probably be better to make the choice for Python a conscious one as well by offering both alternatives or at least make it clear that the default is e.g. x64. Some cases where you'd prefer 32-bit over 64-bit: - MS Office: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Choose-the-64-bit-or-32-bit-version-of-Office-2dee7807-8f95-4d0c-b5fe-6c6f49b8d261 - LibreOffice: https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/55819/version-5-choose-32-bit-or-64-bit/ - Anything to do with media codecs - Anything that still supports older Windows versions (vendors often don't ship 64-bit variants due to this) You just have to compare the number of entries in your "Programs" dir with the "Programs (x86)" dir to see how common 32-bit applications are today. It's also possible that an application of library installs both 32-bit and 64-bit variants. You can then run into issues when configuring these. The ODBC manager on Windows x64 is a prominent example: there are actually two versions of this, one for 32-bit drivers and one for 64-bit drivers - using distinct configurations. 32-bit apps only see the drivers configured with the 32-bit manager, 64-bit apps only the ones configured with the 64-bit variant. Anyway, I agree that defaulting to x64 is the way forward, and defaulting to x64 for Python on Windows x64 is a good approach, but making the default choice clear to the beginner is probably just as needed to at least give them a hint at what the cause of their problems could be. They have to make the same choice with many other applications as well, so it's not like they've never seen this before. -- Marc-Andre Lemburg eGenix.com Professional Python Services directly from the Experts (#1, Jan 27 2017) >>> Python Projects, Coaching and Consulting ... http://www.egenix.com/ >>> Python Database Interfaces ... http://products.egenix.com/ >>> Plone/Zope Database Interfaces ... http://zope.egenix.com/ ________________________________________________________________________ ::: We implement business ideas - efficiently in both time and costs ::: eGenix.com Software, Skills and Services GmbH Pastor-Loeh-Str.48 D-40764 Langenfeld, Germany. CEO Dipl.-Math. Marc-Andre Lemburg Registered at Amtsgericht Duesseldorf: HRB 46611 http://www.egenix.com/company/contact/ http://www.malemburg.com/ _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list Python-ideas@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
