OT: Requesting C advice
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com
Wed May 30 19:53:13 UTC 2007
Mike McCarty wrote:
>
> Those interested in historical matters might look here:
> http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/chist.html
OK but...
>> Actually, that was a huge bone of contention in the committee meetings.
>> The 16-bit integer was the "native" size of the registers on the machine
>> that C was developed on (the PDP-11), so it sorta stuck. However, the
>> standard makes absolutely no guarantees on how big an "int" is. It is
>> completely up to the implementer of the compiler as to how big an "int"
>> is (or a "char" is or an "unsigned long long" is...that's why the
>> "sizeof" operator exists).
>
> This is incorrect. An integer must be able to represent at least
> numbers in the range -32767 to 32767 inclusive.
>
> [QUOTE MODE ON]
>
> 5.2.4.2.1 Sizes of integer types <limits.h>
A quote from a 1989 standard? What were integers between 1973 and 1989?
The language was well established before any committee meetings.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com
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