I am going to move to a 64 bit machine and a 64 bit OS (Windows) and am trying to figure out if any of the extensions/packages I am using are going to be lost when I make the move. I can’t seem to find whether someone has built a list of known issues as flagged on the Python 2.5 release page. I have been using 2.5 but will at this time move to 2.6. I see that the potential conflicts will arise because of the module relying on a C extension module that would not be compatible in a 64 bit environment. But I don’t know how to anticipate them. I want to move to a 64 bit system to because my IT guys told me that is the only way to make a meaningful move up the memory ladder.
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It really depends on the specific modules you are using. I am running several 64-bit Linux systems and I have yet to come across problems with any of the C modules that I use.
Most C modules can be built from source, so you should read about the Python distribution utility distutils to see how you can build these modules if you cannot find 64-bit binaries.
Whether a specific module will work in a 64-bit environment depends on how the code was written. Many modules work correctly when compiled for 64-bits, however there is a chance that it won’t. Many popular modules such those from SciPy work just fine.
In short you will either need to just try the module on a 64-bit system or you will have to find the developer/project page and determine if there is a 64-bit build or if there are known bugs.