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Mail Archives: djgpp/2000/01/21/19:59:32

Message-ID: <3888ED7B.DF52FEB2@ou.edu>
From: David Cleaver <davidis AT ou DOT edu>
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Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Length of Chars...
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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 17:36:27 -0600
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Hello all,

I was wondering if there were any plans on changing the number of bits
in char from 8 to 16 or something like that?  Not that I want this. 
It's just that in limits.h its explicitly defined as 8 bits and I was
thinking that someone might change this in the future.

Ok, well, the real problem is that I'm writing a program that is very
dependent on the char data type being 8-bits.  So, if anyone thought
that it was going to increase in the future, I was going to redo the
program so that it changed with the underlying type.

Which brings me to my second (completely unrelated) point...  Why can't
the primitive data type names reflect how many bits are being used in
their storage?  Why can't they be called... like byte04 for the current
int's, or byte08 for the current long long?  I think this would help out
alot so that programs could be written more with storage in mind. 
Anyway, that's just my two cents worth.  But, please let me know if
anyone can forsee the changing of the storage space in the char data
type.  Thanks for your time.

-David C.

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