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From: hjelm@g.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Mark Hjelm)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.std.c
Subject: Portability / C Language Implementation
Keywords: portable, implementation, architecture
Message-ID: <12374@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 16 Mar 91 15:00:51 GMT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 31


Since the world's not quite all a 32-bit workstation (formerly "Vax"),
I would be interested in generating a list of the characteristics of
other architectures as related to supporting C.  My interest is for
writing portable programs and supporting distributed programs in
heterogeneous computing environments.  I would like descriptions of
various alternative architectures, as well as descriptions of how the
C compilers deal with them.  Topics of interest include:

	integer sizes (e.g. sizeof(int)!=32, sizeof(long)>32, long long)
	integer formats (not 2's complement)
	float formats (not ieee, vax)
	multiple pointer formats
		segmented architectures
		word-oriented architectures
		capability architectures
		anything with non-standard function pointer formats
	alignment constraints
	bitfield implementations
	argument passing mechanisms
	stacks
		alloca implementations
		upward growing
	multiple register sets (e.g. register windows)
	whatever else

Please send email, and I will summarize the responses.

Thanks,
Mark
hjelm@cs.cmu.edu