App updates still 32-bit

[mmoran27]

I noticed a lot if vendors updating their apps for Snow Leopard yet they are still 32-bit.

What gives?

Example:
Parallels
VMWare
Islayer

and others.

 

[Peace]

In my opinion ?

QTKit.

It is the foundation for the Quicktime component of Mac OSX. Many apps depend on this component. Until it becomes 64-bit they will continue to port stuff in 320bit.

 

[mmoran27]

Isn't that component 64-bit?

I thought Quicktime was 64-bit in SL

 

[Amdahl]

I noticed a lot if vendors updating their apps for Snow Leopard yet they are still 32-bit.

What gives?

Example:
Parallels
VMWare
Islayer

and others.

#1, it just isn't that easy, particularly for hypervisors. The debugging & integration into a poorly tested and brand new 64-bit kernel and drivers does take time. 10.6 might have bugs that make it unwise to release. They might want to sell 64-bit versions for MOAR MONAH.

#2, it just might not matter. Unless the app is CPU intensive (benefiting from improvements in AMD64), or RAM intensive (needing more than 3.5GiB), then it is really just more work for no reason.

 

[broken-chaos]

QTKit can be accessed from 32-bit and 64-bit applications. It spawns the needed process in the appropriate mode (32-bit for QT7 stuff, 64-bit for QTX stuff).

As to why vendors haven't updated yet... Well, depending on the application, transitioning to 64-bit can be a big task, particularly with more low-level programs (such as Parallels and VMWare).