Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: 64 bit architectures and C/C++
Message-ID: <1991May22.200706.29166@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Wed, 22 May 1991 20:07:06 GMT
References: <1991May6.232116.11401@sq.sq.com> <1991May9.192156.19291@nightowl.MN.ORG> <313@orac.UUCP> <6659@gssc.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <6659@gssc.UUCP> timr@gssc.UUCP (Tim Roberts) writes:
>What if your 64 bit architecture doesn't have any instructions to deal with
>16 bit units?  ...

Then it's going to be in big trouble trying to implement TCP/IP...!

>The point is this:  C data types are intended to map into the fundamental
>operating units of the underlying hardware.  Discussing the correctness of
>C data type sizing on 64-bit machines in the general case is a pointless waste 
>of network bandwidth.

Not really.  There are some really sticky questions even for well-designed
64-bit machines, where there is no strong a priori preference for one
scheme or the other.
-- 
And the bean-counter replied,           | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
"beans are more important".             |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry