64 bit in a day!

I finally sat down and decided to port my code to 64 bit. I created a new configuration for x64, added Win64 to the predefines and fired off the build. And then it dawned on me, I have 3rd party libraries linking in a few projects (python, lua, gdlib, zlib, xerces/xalan, mysql, sqlite3, odbc and openssl). So I had to make quick decisions of whether to continue or stay with 32bit for a bit longer.

lua: using the actual source to build a DLL, no problem.
sqlite3: using the actual source to build a DLL, no problem.
zlib: 64 bit library I found and linked, no problem.
mysql: had to install the 64 bit version to get include/lib, no problem.
odbc: already native, just had to make a few variable adjustments in the code.
openssl: took a bit of wrestling with the code (assembly file had a syntax error and makefile was including an incorrect static library), in the end I build the 64 bit libs and all worked out.
gdlib: this was a bit tricky, since I could not find 64 bit libs, I had to build it myself inside my code (as I did with lua and sqlite3) but it then needed libpng and libjpeg, which had to be included. After some more wrestling with the config I managed to build it successfully.

And now for the casualties:

python was on the chopping block for a while, I really like lua as an embedded language and python for scripting in the shell. So I made a decision to not have python support from within the app server.
xalan/xerces has been a bit problematic from the beginning and multi-threaded tests occasionally failed which never happened with MSXML. I could not find 64 bit libs and the build system was depended on Configure, so I decided to not include it and rely on MSXML which is way faster and more stable on Windows. When I port to linux I will probably go with libxml2 and libxsl.

After all that the server itself built without a hitch and I was able to start and test it. I surprised myself that there were no portability issues with 64bits compile.

Made me so confident that I installed VMWare player with Ubuntu on it and created a makefile that built 1 of my source files... with about 300 to go; hey it's a start. I suspect the toughest part is going to be porting the synchronization, socket and file based classes; I have been on projects where I had to port code from windows to unix, so it shouldn't be too tough. The 3rd party stuff i have so far is pretty portable, so it should not present a big problem.


My biggest dilemma is what do I call my app server?!
Do I need an animal/plant/insect/object mascot?

All the good names that represent fast and lightweight have been taken by products that are often neither...