home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: tbj.dec.com!diamond
- From: diamond@tbj.dec.com (Norman Diamond)
- Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.std.c
- Subject: Re: Coding Standards are ignorant
- Date: 21 Mar 1996 03:51:32 GMT
- Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Japan , Tokyo
- Message-ID: <4iqjo4$2c2@usenet.pa.dec.com>
- References: <4gum82$14v4@info4.rus.uni-stuttgart.de> <MIB.96Mar15170902@gnu.ai.mit.edu> <wyraut5fqq.fsf@dns.bluesky.net> <MIB.96Mar16174948@gnu.ai.mit.edu> <4ifq40$i87@sundog.tiac.net> <MIB.96Mar18105957@gnu.ai.mit.edu> <314db547.242588844@nntp.ix.netcom.com> <MIB.96Mar19105603@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
- Reply-To: diamond@tbj.dec.com (Norman Diamond)
- NNTP-Posting-Host: jit533.tbj.dec.com
-
- In article <MIB.96Mar19105603@gnu.ai.mit.edu>, mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I. Bushnell, p/BSG) writes:
- >In article <314db547.242588844@nntp.ix.netcom.com> miker3@ix.netcom.com (Mike Rubenstein) writes:
- >>You most certainly are guarantteed that long is the widest signed integral
- >>type and unsigned long is the widest unsigned integral type by ISO 6.1.2.5.
- [Caveat on sloppy wording in the standard which will probably be fixed.]
-
- >It appears you are correct. Then the flaw is that you are prohibited
- >from using more than four widths of integers. That's a mistake, which
- >we will all rue when the first 128 bit machines come out. ;-)
-
- Actually one famous mistake is already known with 64 bit machines.
- 8-bit char, 16-bit short, 32-bit int, 64-bit long is technically valid
- but it is weird for int to have a different size from both short and long.
-
- Another mistake was already known at the time of K&R-1, when there was
- only one size for char but one of their cited implementations was on a
- machine which had two sizes for char (either 6 or 9 bits).
-
- Another mistake has been known for a couple of decades, making char the
- unit size for most C operations when characters actually require 16 or
- 32 bits (or varying numbers of bits in some encoding schemes) while the
- most popular unit size is 8 bits.
- --
- << If this were the company's opinion, I would not be allowed to post it. >>
- "I paid money for this car, I pay taxes for vehicle registration and a driver's
- license, so I can drive in any lane I want, and no innocent victim gets to call
- the cops just 'cause the lane's not goin' the same direction as me" - J Spammer
-