Message-ID: <B0002570635@hermes.cnx.net>
From: "Jonathan & Shandra Wiebe" <jbwiebe AT cnx DOT net>
To: XXguille AT XXiies DOT XXes (Guillermo Rodriguez Garcia), djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 19:45:16 -0800
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Subject: Re: Portability and size_t type related question
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Verily, on 13 May 99,
 A scroll of the prophet Guillermo Rodriguez Garcia arrived, 
 Saying:

> El día Thu, 13 May 1999 11:12:26 GMT, XXguille AT XXiies DOT XXes (Guillermo
> Rodriguez Garcia) escribió:
> 
> 
> >>> Like 'char' is always 1 byte.
> >>
> 
> Quoting from "Rationale for American National Standard for
> Information Systems - Programming Language - C" (the ANSI C
> rationale is a document which explain and tries to clarify the
> standard itself):
> 
> "All objects in C must be representable as a contiguous sequence of
> bytes, each of which is at least 8 bits wide.
> 
> A char (or signed char or unsigned char) occupies exactly one byte.
> 
> (Thus, for instance, on a machine with 36-bit 'words', a 'byte' can
> be defined to consist of 9, 12, 18 or 36 bits, these numbers being
> all the exact divisors of 36 which are not less than 8.) These
> strictures codify the widespread presumption that any object can be
> treated as an array of characters, the size of which is given by the
> sizeof operator with that object's type as it operand."
> 
> 
> What I said above is also true: a byte can be any width, depending
> on the system; but for a conforming C implementation, the host
> machine must have at least 8 bits per byte.
> 
To back this up, (quoting from _The Dictionary of Standard C_ by Rex
Jaeschke):

char:  An integer type keyword.  A char is big enough to hold any
character in the target system's character set.  Standard C requires
it to be at least eight bits.  char expressions traditionally were
widened to int when used in expressions and as arguments to functions.
However, Standard C allows them to be used without widening.

And also,

char, plain:  The type char used without either of the modifiers
signed or unsigned.  It is implementation-defined as to whether a
plain char is signed or unsigned.

Regards,

Jonathan B. Wiebe

- --
Most people use statistics the way a drunkard uses a lamp post, more
for support than illumination. 

Mark Twain

- --
Jonathan B. Wiebe       <jbwiebe AT cnx DOT net>       <><
Kelowna, BC             Cogitor, judicor: ergo sum.

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