"I certainly understand that you'd like a 64-bit version of MoI, but in order to do it would require a major churn in my development environment needing to switch to a new compiler and updating all support libraries and dealing with various compatibility issues from that. That's going to be very disruptive for me and so I don't think it's going to be likely to happen anytime too soon."


Congrats Michael on the upcoming updates with the speed improvements!


My only thoughts as to your quote above is I see this 64-bit issue similar to how everyone was begging for a MAC port.


You >resisted< in the beginning correctly stating that it would take a good amount of time for you to develop for the MAC not to mention supporting the dual platforms.

BUT you surprised us all when you came out with a MAC version - I even think it was cloudy that day until I saw your release post and the sun came out! :-P

I'm not even a MAC user but I was so happy for you cause you finally delivered what a lot of folks had been asking for.

So in the end it was totally worth the time and effort; you've now opened up your program to a whole new set of users which is obviously a great thing for your business.


I see this "64-bit issue" as another, if not the final ball and chain hanging around your neck which needs to be finally removed.

I can absolutely see, and believe you on how painful this conversion will be to do, but obviously you'll have to do it sooner or later so I'd advocate why not sooner?

Not so much all at once but perhaps just start by gathering up everything you'll need so if there are any missing pieces or road blocks, you'll find out now rather than at the point where you want to focus fully on the conversion.

If you can setup your environments and acquire your 64-bit libraries now in parallel to what you're doing, you'll be set for when you can focus in earnest, perhaps at the end of this v3 cycle?


You've just mentioned yourself that MOI with the new parallelism will tend to use more memory and at times, get near the 4-gig / 32-bit barrier so that along with more and more folks sitting with MOI on 64-bit machines just makes this "sore thumb" that much more painful to live with.


Again, I completely respect the pain involved with making the switch to 64-bit; all the new software required and the heavy testing that will be involved - almost like going back to a V1 (v1.5?) product more or less.



To summarize my feeling on this, just picture two little people sitting on your shoulders, one saying: "OUCH, don't do it Michael, ouch, ouch, ouch! Not now, too much pain, avoid it at all costs..."

The other is saying "Go ahead Michael, you know you have to do it sooner or later, might as well get it over with - 'Fight though the pain!...' (Gears of War reference there LOL) and get this weight off your shoulders..."


Now if you want to just spring the 64-bit update on us as a surprise like you did with the MAC version, by all means disregard this post LOL!
(My wife is like that - she ALWAYS wants to surprise me with stuff! At times I even have to ask multiple times to get an answer to "what's for dinner?" LOL!)

-Will