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From: new@ee.udel.edu (Darren New)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: The Forbiden
Message-ID: <27729@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 17 Aug 90 13:53:22 GMT
References: <24294@megaron.cs.arizona.edu> <1990Aug16.213113@ee.ubc.ca>
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In article <1990Aug16.213113@ee.ubc.ca> mikeb@salmon.ee.ubc.ca writes:
>On the other hand, the resource constraints may change dramatically
>when the program is moved to a different platform, and the programmer
>may not be aware of the change.
>
>Example: [about C deleted]

The problem here is not that the constraints changed, but that you did
not express the constraints properly. A type def. of something as (say)
a "fastint range 0 .. 1567" would let the compiler choose what is best:
a short on a 68K and a long on a SPARC.  (Doesn't Ada have something
like this?)  C does not let you express such constraints directly, and
forces you to express them in terms of the machine hardware; C is
obviously not the "Universal Language".    -- Darren
-- 
--- Darren New --- Grad Student --- CIS --- Univ. of Delaware ---