Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!charon!guido
From: guido@cwi.nl (Guido van Rossum)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Huh? What's wrong here... (A Simple Think C question)
Message-ID: <3417@charon.cwi.nl>
Date: 28 Apr 91 19:49:05 GMT
References: <63903@bbn.BBN.COM>
Sender: news@cwi.nl
Lines: 19

rmitchel@bbn.com (Rob Mitchell) writes:

>[correct diagnosis of earlier problem omitted]
>	IMHO, never use "int" when programming Mac.  Use either "short" or
>	"long" (or better, declare typedefs for Int8, UInt8, etc.) which
>	helps when porting to other computer systems.

I take exception with this advice.  Portable programs should use 'int'
for most common cases, especially function parameters, except:

	- always use long if values > 32767 are possible
	- use short for space conservation in structs and arrays,
	  when values are guaranteed to be <= 32767.

The reason is that 'int' is likely to generate the most efficient
code, because it represents the natural word size (register size) for
the architecture.

--Guido van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam <guido@cwi.nl>