Summary: STSDAS will remain 32-bit
Details:
IRAF 2.16 includes support for 64-bit systems. The changes necessary to support 64-bits generally require applications to be modified. For many packages the changes are relatively minor. Nevertheless, for others they can be more substantial, and involve quite a bit of testing and risk of undiscovered problems. In the case of TABLES and STSDAS, there are packages that fall into both these categories. STScI has decided that it is not worth the effort to port these packages in their entirety to 64-bits. The following will describe our plans for handling support of 64-bit IRAF with regard to TABLES and STSDAS:
- NOAO will produce a 64-bit version of the core tables libraries so that 64-bit IRAF application can access tables. There will continue to be a 32-bit version of tables in the TABLES release to support 32-bit applications.
- STScI will release 32-bit binaries of the TABLES and STSDAS packages to use with IRAF 2.16. Support for 32-binaries will continue as long as there are sufficient platforms that such binaries will run on.
- When the 32-bit versions of TABLES and STSDAS are no longer viable, support for those packages will end.