Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: type and size of bit-fields
Message-ID: <1991Mar20.172906.3645@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1991 17:29:06 GMT
References: <12638@adobe.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <12638@adobe.UUCP> taft@adobe.COM writes:
>Now admittedly, nearly everything to do with bit-fields is implementation
>dependent. On the other hand, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect an
>implementation to support bit-fields of any size up to and including the
>largest integral type. Can anyone offer authoritative information...

It's pretty much as you've stated.  The standard promises almost nothing
about bitfields.  The degree of support for them is a "quality of
implementation" issue.  One would hope for the property you request, but
there is no guarantee of it.
-- 
"[Some people] positively *wish* to     | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
believe ill of the modern world."-R.Peto|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry