Can 32-bit and 64-bit Python coexist in the same computer?

[Andy]

Hi guys!

I got a new laptop computer which came with the 64-bit version of
Windows 7. I installed the 64-bit versions of Python and a few other
libraries and wrote a few Python programs right there. If I copy the
Python scripts to a 32-bit computer, it runs flawlessly. But in the
future I may still need to distribute my compiled programs to people
who use 32-bit Windows and it seems that neither PyInstaller nor
py2exe can cross compile a 32-bit application from this 64-bit
computer.

So ugly as it sounds, I'm considering installing in parallel the 32-
bit version of Python on this same computer. Is there anything I need
to know or a better way to achieve this instead of having a double
Python installation?

By the way, I use Python 2.6, so it would be [Python 2.6.x 32-bit] and
[Python 2.6.x 64-bit] on the same computer.

Thanks!
Andy

 

[J.O. Aho]

Hi guys!

I got a new laptop computer which came with the 64-bit version of
Windows 7. I installed the 64-bit versions of Python and a few other
libraries and wrote a few Python programs right there. If I copy the
Python scripts to a 32-bit computer, it runs flawlessly. But in the
future I may still need to distribute my compiled programs to people
who use 32-bit Windows and it seems that neither PyInstaller nor
py2exe can cross compile a 32-bit application from this 64-bit
computer.

A better way may be to have everything as a source package which "auto
compiles" during installation, then you can use an universal package.

So ugly as it sounds, I'm considering installing in parallel the 32-
bit version of Python on this same computer. Is there anything I need
to know or a better way to achieve this instead of having a double
Python installation?

This will work, you just need to have two different paths to the installations
and of course you will need to install packages for both of them. It works
kind in the same way as you would have 2.6 and 3 installed on the same time.