Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!decwrl!ads.com!potomac!jtn
From: jtn@potomac.ads.com (John T. Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Can THINK C support wider types than normal?
Message-ID: <9216@potomac.ads.com>
Date: 30 Sep 90 19:35:16 GMT
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems, Arlington VA
Lines: 35


I know that THINK C uses 16 bit wide fields to store its int's and 32
for longs, I have a piece of software, however, that would REALLY like
to see 32-bit wide int's and the other types that Sun computers
support.

If THINK C can't accomodate longer types with some magic macro or
switch then it means I'll have to redefine a LOT of code.  There seem
to be two schools of thought here....

	1. the 68000, has a 16-bit bus, so int should be 16 bits
	2. the 68000 has 32 bit registers, so int should be 32 bits
 
Type 1 compilers keep their stacks two-byte aligned; they push two
bytes when passing an char or an int and four when passing a long.
Type 2 compilers widen all parameters to four bytes.
 
Type 1s have a performance advantage on 68000 and 68010, but their
programs die if you pass a two-byte quantity to a function expecting a
four byter.  Type 2s are slow on 68000/010, but catch up on 68020 and
above; they are also much more tolerant of char/short/int/long
confusion.
 
Any ideas?



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