It's generally known that perl has a lot of arbitrary 32-bit restrictions, both in the code, and in the API; and that attempts to fix the former are often hampered by the restrictions of the latter. $ grep '^A' embed.fnc | grep 32 | wc -l 252 Perhaps its time to bite the bullet and give perl a whole new 64-bit-clean API? For example, an av_fetch64() with IV rather than I32 args. Initially these might just be wrappers around the existing functions which croak for args > 2^31; but eventually over time as internals get written to be 64-bit clean, then instead the old functions become wrappers around the new. Providing a completely new API might also give use the opportunity to clean up other aspects of the API, not just 64-bit issues. Or perhaps XS code could just have #define USE_64BIT_API and magically av_fetch has 64-bit args, and deprecated macros etc are no longer defined? I suspect the hardest bit may be dealing with public structs that have 32-bit members. Anyway, this is all vague hand-waving, in an attempt to start a discussion. -- O Unicef Clearasil! Gibberish and Drivel! -- "Bored of the Rings"Thread Next