Re: Windows emacs-25.1 i686 vs x86_64?

[phillip.lord@russet.org.uk (Phillip Lord)]

"David M. Miller" <dmmiller2k@gmail.com> writes:

> On Thursday, November 3, 2016 at 11:32:42 AM UTC-4, David M. Miller wrote:
>> When I went to download 25.1 for windows I saw two packages on the main GNU ftp server:
>> 
>>     emacs-25.1-i686-w64-mingw32.zip
>>      - AND -
>>     emacs-25.1-x86_64-w64-mingw32.zip
>> 
>> but no explanation of the difference between them in the README file.
>> 
>> Also, there seems to be a separate package of "deps" for each:
>> 
>>     emacs-25-i686-deps.zip
>>      - AND -
>>     emacs-25-x86_64-deps.zip
>> 
>> the need for which is also not explained anywhere (dependencies? dependencies for what?).
>> 
>> Does anyone know what the difference between the i686 and x86_64 packages are?
>> Does anyone know what the "deps" packages are for?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> David
>
> After examining both main emacs packages, I think I figured out the obscure
> naming conventions: 'i686' refers to the 32-bit version, while 'x86_64' refers
> to the 64-bit version. So this answers my first question.
>
> I have no intention of doing so, but I still wonder whether the "deps" package
> is intended for *BUILDING* emacs, or if it provides runtime binary support for
> some of the more obscure elisp facilities.


Apologies for this. I built those packages, and haven't got around to
updating the README. I will try and do so tonight.

i686 and x86_64 are the 32 and 64 bit versions respectively. The names
come from the names for these platforms used in ./configure. Probably
not something that I should be inflicting on users. The "deps" package
are the external dependencies that Emacs uses, for features like XML
parsing, image rendering and so forth. If you unpack these over the
relevant version of Emacs, it's powers will be magically enhanced.

Phil