our target production environment is Win2003 + SQL2005 + .NET 2.0 (all 32 bit);
Currently We have new developing PCs comming in and they are 64 bit capable.
As a developer PC, we want real raw installation instead of VM solution.
I know 64 bit IDE installation (win7 X64 + VS 2010 X64) will give us bigger RAM and faster response and I know 32 bit application can run in 64 bit environment through WOW (windows 32 on Windows 64) .
My concerns:
(1) 3rd party DLLs are 32 bit and might give us debugging troubles in 64 bit environment.
(2) The production target platform is 32 bit, it might give us some troubles to adjust 64 bit develoment environment to fit the target.
(3) Because the WOW is the mechanisim for 32 bit process running under 64 bit environment, No big performance gain (testing & developing the 32 bit code) just because it’s 64 bit IDE environment.
Are my concerns valid?
I really want to know if the 64 bit PC development environment could improve our developing process (for 32 bit target) or might just end up giving us a bunch of troubles instead.
Thanks a lot.
Support for 32 bit development on a 64 bit platform has in my experience been flawless. That said, with a modern computer I doubt you will notice much difference in responsiveness and speed of the development process between the two. You would probably know this better than me, though, as only you know the details of what you are going to develop and how resource hungry said development will be. If you are just writing code, you could probably do that on a Commodore 64.
If you really think there is a reason to pick 64 bit, then I doubt you will run into much trouble. Installing a virtual machine is easy as a backup solution. Even if the 64 bit installation turns out to be a bad decision, you could always set up a dual boot, or just reinstall the OS. To be honest I think you are worrying too much 🙂