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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: type cast in initializer
Message-ID: <924@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 04:03:56 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.924
Posted: Fri Feb 14 04:03:56 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Feb-86 04:54:48 EST
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>The values of '\377' and -1 are one and the same without a type cast.

Well, on some architectures they are and on some they aren't.
X3J11 appears to have decided that they are the same whenever
a plain (char) is treated as (signed char); otherwise '\377'
has the value 255.  I don't like this, but I suspect it's in
the rules for "historical reasons".