The Development Environment

This chapter explains the 64-bit application development environment. The chapter describes the build environment, including header and library issues, compiler options, linking, and debugging tools. The information also provides guidance on packaging issues.

Before you begin, though, it is important to determine whether your installed version of the operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit. If you have come this far, the assumption is that you are running on the 64-bit version. To confirm this, you can use the isainfo(1) command that was explained in Chapter 3, Comparing 32-bit Interfaces and 64-bit Interfaces. Even if you are using the 32-bit operating environment, you can still build your 64-bit applications, provided you have the system header files and 64–bit libraries on your system.