Is there any differences between java or .NET projects built in win 32 bit and another built in win 64 bit?

Question

I have to develop some websites, the software is using STS or Rational IBM. I'm using Windows 7 32 bit but the Rational IBM is needed too much RAM, so I want to upgrade to win 64bit to use 8GB RAM. But, I'm not sure if my teammates or the customer - who using at last - they are using win 32 bit. Can they exchange code with me (using SVN)? Any differences between project or WAR file? Can 32bit system can run project?

The same question with .NET project? It will build .dll files, I think they are many differences between .dll 32bit and .dll 64bit.

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

Pure Java is platform indepependent. It used on any project different platform which has a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Oracle (Sun) provides the JRE implementation for major known platform architectures and OS. More overe, there's any thirdparty JRE instances which comply Java specs. All of these JREs will run your bytecoded projects.

Yes, they could share the code with you, either you running x86 or x64 processor architecture. Just uses different JRE implementation, but it should not concirn your project if it's 100% pure Java certified. You could consult the Oracle about get certification for your Java project.

I have nothing to know about .NET, but if it used with the Java project then you may have incompatibilities between platforms.

dlls ofcourse are different which built for different platforms, however you could run 32 bit dlls on x64 platform under the wow64 architecture.

Answer 2

.NET compiles for Win32 (32 bit) by default, even if the operating system is a 64 bit version. So no problem on this. If you compile for x64 you will be able to exchange your code, but your binaries will only run on a 64 bit installation. Even so, unlikely C/C++, a source code can easily be compiled for both Win32 and x64 with no changes.

The same goes for Java, 2 different versions of the JVM exist, for 32 and 64 bit Windows. You can install both of them without any issue. If you want to code 32 bit applications, you have to install a 32 bit JDK. You might experience some minor issues with the IDEs, so maybe you'll need to download both JDKs, but your code will be portable anyway.

EDIT

I don't know what kind of issued I was remembering. As it was said in the comments, .NET and Java are compiled to platform-neutral bytecode, which means that not only the source code, but also the compiled binaries, can be shared among different platforms (x64 or x86).

If you are using native code, or third-party libraries that use platform-specific native code, it might be more complicated, because you have to deploy the native code compiled for the right architecture.