January 21st, 2004

What tools should I assume everybody has?

My code samples assume you are using the latest header files from the Platform SDK (free download), the one that includes support for Win64. If you have an older SDK then you won’t have various new data types like UINT_PTR and INT_PTR and should just use UINT and INT. I write code that is Win64-compliant as a matter of course since all code in Windows must be Win64-compliant. Writing noncompliant code is as foreign to me as it would be for a chess player to consider the ramifications of an illegal move. It doesn’t even enter my mind.

The question for readers: Should I assume that everybody has the latest header files? Or should I write old-style code (that won’t run on Win64)?

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Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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