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From: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: 32 bit longs
Message-ID: <1991Jan24.142235.24668@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 24 Jan 91 14:22:35 GMT
References: <1348@geovision.UUCP> <14824@smoke.brl.mil> <BEVAN.91Jan12120920@orca.cs.man.ac.uk> <1991Jan13.182655.17672@athena.mit.edu> <1291@mti.mti.com> <231@nazgul.UUCP>
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Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
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In article <1348@geovision.UUCP> pt@geovision.uucp (Paul Tomblin) writes:
>bright@nazgul.UUCP (Walter Bright) writes:
>>	if (sizeof(x) == 4)
>>		/* code here depends on 32 bits in x */


Let us assume that it depends on having EXACTLY 32 bits in x.

>>		...
>>	else
>>		/* Portability alert! */
>>		assert(0); /* rewrite this algorithm! */
>
>What could possibly be the advantage of that code over the following?:
>
>	/*	If this assertion fails, port to another machine or rewrite! */
>	assert(sizeof(x) == 4);
>


Because the original will alert the reader when sizeof(x) is 4 but
x has 64 bits. OR where sizeof(x) is 4 but x has 36 bits.

Doug McDonald