Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Thursday Quote - Stan Murawski


"... data types are the key to success."
Beyond Windows XP: Get Ready Now for the Upcoming 64-Bit Version of Windows by Stan Murawski, from the November 2001 issue of MSDN Magazine.

That quote caught my eye during my protracted struggle with 32-versus-64-bits.

Here's a bit (pun intended) of the wider context:

SUMMARY In this article the author modifies an industry standard middle-tier application server benchmark called Nile. The goal was to get it to build and run correctly on the 64-bit edition of the Microsoft .NET Advanced Server running on computers with Intel Itanium processors and still build as a 32-bit version to run on Pentium class x86 processors.

While modifying Nile, the author discovered some of the tips he presents here. As the article explains, when modifying code for 64-bit Windows, data types are the key to success. The article discusses which types to use and when, along with new data types and the importance of memory alignment.
Yes, he's talking about C code, but nevertheless data types ARE one of the keys to success. It is all well and good to use abstract data types like "string" and "number" but if you don't have a clue about what they actually are, you may be unprepared when reality intrudes.

Consider the bear...

Abstract Bear



Actual Bear





Next week: Joel Spolsky


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