What is the difference between 32 and 64 bit Python on Windows 7 64 bit?

[Terry Reedy]

On 5/11/2014 2:56 AM, Ross Gayler wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I want to install Python on a PC with 16GB of RAM and the 64 bit version
> of Windows 7.
> I want Python to be able to use as much as possible of the RAM.
>
> When I install the 64 bit version of Python I find that sys.maxint ==
> 2**31  - 1

Since sys.maxint is gone in 3.x, you must be using some version of 2.x. 
Do yourself a favor and install 3.4 unless you absolutely need 2.x.

With 3.4:
 >>> a = [None]*1000000000
 >>> sys.getsizeof(a)
8000000064
That is 1000000000 8-byte pointers, as I expected.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy