I have a 64 bit windows operating system and I use VS2008 to write my programs. I've noticed there are 3 compilers in the bin folder: an amd64 , x86_amd64 and one in the bin directory (at least I think it is !). I use SCONS to Compile my programs and when I use the --tree=all in scons I can see that It uses the amd64 compiler. I have an Intel i5 processor and I have not specified which compiler to use in SCONS, so Why is it using amd64 ?
From what I understand the x86_amd64 is used if you are on a 32-bit machine and wants to compile 64-bit programs, so is amd64 used for 64-bit programs regardless of the C.P.U ?, if that's the case then what is the purpose of the cl.exe in the bin directory ?, Could someone explain this to me?.
Also, is there any way to see which compiler is being used by VS2008?. I can't find any info. in the build log.
cl.exe controls the compilers and the linker. :) see here and learneth :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9s7c9wdw%28v=vs.80%29.aspx
i know its about vs 2k5 but still relevant.
everything else you stated was correct though from what i could tell.
i believe you can see the command line options for cl within the properties of VS. from there i believe if you run that command from the actual command line you can see the subsequent commands it issues to the compilers and the linker, at which point you can then see what compiler it used.