From: dontmailme AT iname DOT com (Steamer) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: printf, cprintf and CR/LF problem Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 08:35:59 GMT Organization: always disorganized Lines: 27 Message-ID: <39a8d2ed.6649049@news.freeserve.net> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: modem-102.ohio.dialup.pol.co.uk X-Trace: news5.svr.pol.co.uk 967365360 934 62.137.86.102 (27 Aug 2000 08:36:00 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Aug 2000 08:36:00 GMT X-Complaints-To: abuse AT theplanet DOT net X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Radical NetSurfer wrote: > /* Still waiting to learn what a 16-bit entity is called on a 32-bit > platform (since WORD has been made in an ambiguous term. */ There has never been a standard word size, so "word" has always been ambiguous. On a particular platform it ought to be obvious what "word" means, but 386-compatible processors running in 32-bit mode represent a problem - their native word size is 32 bits, but they are derived from 16-bit processors where "word" has always meant 16 bits. What's wrong with calling a 16-bit entity "two bytes"? (Or "two octets", if you want to be totally unambiguous.) The term "short" is OK too, as long as you only use it when talking about compilers on which a short is 16 bits (which includes all x86 C compilers that I've ever seen). Or you may like to use the terminology that Donald Knuth has adopted for future volumes of The Art of Computer Programming: 1 byte = 8 bits 2 bytes = 1 wyde = 16 bits 2 wydes = 1 tetra = 32 bits 2 tetras = 1 octa = 64 bits The words "tetra" and "octa" are short forms of "tetrabyte" and "octabyte". S.