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Date: Tue, 13 May 2014 10:09:58 +1000
Subject: Re: What is the difference between 32 and 64 bit Python on Windows 7 64 bit?
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Cc: "python-list@python.org" <python-list@python.org>
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On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 10:05 AM, Sturla Molden <sturla.molden@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/05/14 08:56, Ross Gayler wrote:
>
>> Is that true?I have spent a couple of hours searching for a definitive
>> description of the difference between the 32 and 64 bit versions of
>> Python for Windows and haven't found anything.
>
>
> Why do you care if a Python int object uses 32 or 64 bits internally? Python
> 2.x will automatically switch to long when needed. The size of the Python
> integer is an internal implementation detail you will not notice. Python
> knows when to use a long instead of an int. Python 3.x does not even have a
> fixed-size integer.

Sometimes you just want to confirm. :) Or maybe you want your program
to be able to detect which it's on. There are ways of doing both, but
sys.maxint isn't one of them, as it's specific to the int->long
promotion of Py2.

ChrisA