{"id":783,"date":"2026-07-12T13:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/?p=783"},"modified":"2026-07-12T13:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:56:11","slug":"i-deleted-the-obsolete-archive-of-32-bit-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/i-deleted-the-obsolete-archive-of-32-bit-files\/","title":{"rendered":"I deleted the obsolete archive of 32-bit files"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><h3 data-path-to-node=\"44\">Turning the page (and freeing up space)<\/h3><ul data-path-to-node=\"45\"><li><p data-path-to-node=\"45,0,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"45,0,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">No regrets to have:<\/b> Keeping these thousands of files would bring nothing but visual clutter and useless nostalgia to your hard drive.<\/p><\/li><li><p data-path-to-node=\"45,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"45,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Focus on the existing:<\/b> QChartist in its current version does its job. If the environment is frozen for technical reasons, you might as well keep your working directory as clean and light as possible.<\/p><\/li><\/ul><p data-path-to-node=\"46\">You can empty the recycle bin with peace of mind. It&#8217;s simply the logical conclusion of the lifecycle of a software application that extracted every last drop of potential from its original compiler.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the kind of loss that brings a little sting of nostalgia, but if we look at the situation pragmatically: <strong>it&#8217;s not a catastrophe<\/strong>, and it&#8217;s actually rather a good thing for the clarity of your current project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tools like <em>API Guide<\/em> or <em>API Viewer<\/em> were the absolute bibles for Visual Basic 6 and RapidQ developers around the year 2000. They were used to find the right <code>Declare Function ...<\/code> statements to call native Windows functions (the famous User32.dll or Kernel32.dll).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is why you can turn the page without regret:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>1. These tools were strictly limited to 32-bit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>All the Windows API function declarations (<code>USER32<\/code>, <code>KERNEL32<\/code>, <code>GDI32<\/code>) contained in <em>API Guide<\/em> or <em>API Viewer<\/em> used 32-bit data types (like <code>Long<\/code> in old Basic to represent pointers or <code>hWnd<\/code> handles). If you had tried to copy and paste these declarations directly into your 64-bit code for <strong>QChartist2<\/strong>, your program would have crashed instantly or caused memory leaks. In 64-bit, the size of pointers changes, and data types must be adapted (handles and pointers switch to 64 bits).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>2. Modern documentation is accessible and up to date<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, you no longer need a third-party application stored locally to find this information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Official Documentation (Microsoft Learn):<\/strong> It details every Windows API with both its 32-bit and 64-bit requirements.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Web and AI:<\/strong> Finding the exact syntax of a Windows API adapted for 64-bit for a modern compiler now takes a fraction of a second, with much cleaner examples than those from 20 years ago.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>3. Lightening your website and your mind<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>By removing these old utilities from your site, you eliminate &#8220;technical debt&#8221; and visual noise. Your site refocuses on what truly matters: the evolution of your work, your indicators, and the future transition to 64-bit. It&#8217;s a forced spring cleaning, but a beneficial one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider it a definitive break from the chains of 32-bit. QChartist2 is moving forward on a brand new path!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turning the page (and freeing up space) No regrets to have: Keeping these thousands of files would bring nothing but visual clutter and useless nostalgia to your hard drive. Focus on the existing: QChartist in its current version does its job. If the environment is frozen for technical reasons, you might as well keep your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[30,9,11,15,5,13,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":784,"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qchartist.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}