Question

Does anyone (here) know if Windows 8 will have a sort of fat exe that one can compile with Visual Studio 2012 that will be supported on both ARM and x86 machines? I am guessing not, since you can't create fat binaries that will execute 32 or 64 bit code so far as I am aware (only solution available that I am aware of is 32 bit that creates a 64 bit executable on the fly).

It seems like it would be helpful of Microsoft to extend exe or create a fat binary format for Windows 8 and beyond at least that would allow one to compile a single executable for Window's expanding palette of platforms.

edit: The following link shows how to compile an ARM exe in the first dev preview. Figured I would add that because it gives no hint of fat binary support, but it is also early in the game. I don't think not having it now rules it out as a possibility. Compile for ARM

Was it helpful?

Solution

The need for fat binary support in Windows 8 is mitigated by the requirement that binaries for the ARM platform be distributed through the Windows app store. Modern apps are compiled to a single package.

OTHER TIPS

Separate binaries are needed for execution on different systems. Similar as they have for win32 and win64.

I've seen no news, hints, or even rumors about such feature. Considering that we already have to keep a separate set of executables and DLLs for x86 and x64, I don't see this changing for ARM. Also, considering ARM machines usually have quite limited memory as it is, dragging along x86/x64 ballast "just in case" makes even less sense.

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