[OS X TeX] 64-bit binaries in TeXLive 2010

[Alan Litchfield]

I do not agree. Strongly.

I have both Intel and PPC Macs and there is not a noticeable difference in
performance, but the PPC Mac I use is a G5 dual processor with substantial
RAM.

There is no reason to believe that this machine will not continue to perform
as well as it does now. Grandfathering it so soon after 10.6 was released I do
not believe is a suitable solution. I would suggest that at this time there
are no more people using 64-bit systems than there are using 32-bit, and
indeed there may be fewer.

Alan

Claus Gerhardt wrote:
> Since the speed improvement of the 64-bit binaries is clearly noticeable,
> e.g., using Flashmode, let me suggest to include OS X 64-bit binaries in TL
> 2010 as a standard option known by install-tl as well as by texlive manager.
>
> To relieve the burden of compiling additional binaries from Richard Koch let
> me also suggest, at least tentatively, that the TeXLive support  for ppc
> should be frozen to TL 2009. The PowerPCs which are still in use are clearly
> outdated by any measure and there is no point to develop software for machines
> and OS that are a few generations behind, especially since TL 2009 should be
> more than sufficient for texing.
>
> This is a realistic view and those who are still using a PPC let me advice, if
> you ever had tried a new IntelMac you wouldn't want to switch back to your
> PPC.
>


-- 
Alan Litchfield MBus (Hons), MNZCS
AlphaByte
PO Box 1941, 1140, Auckland, New Zealand
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