MacPorts and 64-bit

[Frederick Akalin]

I submitted a patch to provide a 64-bit variant of gmp a while ago: (
http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/macports/ticket/15002 ) but it is
kind of kludgy in that you have to specify the variant manually and
that any program/package that uses the 64-bit version must also be
compiled with -m64.

This brings up the issue of how 64-bit issues should be handled in
general, which has been brought up before, I believe.  Is there way to
build 'universal' libraries?  Can someone give me some background on
the 64-bit-related issues with MacPorts?  I can't promise a lot of
time, but I'd be interested in helping.

Also, why is -m64 not the default on Apple's gcc?  Of course, I'm
guessing it's for backwards-compatibility reasons, but will it
eventually be the default?  I haven't had a (64-bit) mac until a few
months ago so I haven't been keeping tabs on it.

Thanks!

-- 
Frederick Akalin
http://www.akalin.cx