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From: zrm@mit-eddie.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MPW C annoyances....
Message-ID: <5286@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: Sun, 29-Mar-87 18:43:28 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.5286
Posted: Sun Mar 29 18:43:28 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 31-Mar-87 00:48:55 EST
References: <12500007@acf4.UUCP>
Reply-To: zrm@eddie.MIT.EDU (Zigurd R. Mednieks)
Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 39

In article <12500007@acf4.UUCP> spector@acf4.UUCP (David HM Spector) writes:
>Char			8			Range -128 to 127
>unsigned Char		8			Range 0 to 225
>short			16			Range -32768 to 32767
>unsigned short		16			Range 0 to 65535
>int			32			Range -2,147,483,648 to .....
>
>Integers on the 680x0 family are 16 (sixteen) bits wide, longs are 32bits.
>Whats more is that Apple (!!), in Inside Macintosh states that integers are
>*16 bits*!  (see Inside Macintosh, Vol. I, Pg.86, "Pascal Data Types") 
>

Indeed! I think it is a sinister plot by a Pascalist cabal within
Apple. I can picture the scenario: The evil Pascalist intercepts a
call from Green Hills... "Uh yeah, 32 bit integers, that's what we
want, yeah, that's the ticket. Oh you know, the only people who will
use C are those Unix weenies, they'll probably even use printf and
stdio file i/o."

Actually, I don't know if any version of Green Hills C (a.k.a. MPW C)
has 16 bit ints. The two compilers that seem to do everything
right are Aztec C, by Manx Software, and LightspeedC, by Think
Technologies. The first has a Unix-like environment, the latter a
Macintosh oriented one. I use the latter.

(Somewhat self serving plug follows)

For a discussion of what to look for in a Macintosh C compiler, and
why you should look for those things, see "C Programming Techniques
for the Macintosh" published by Howard W. Sams & Co. If somebody from
Apple will tell me who the product manager for MPW is, I'll make sure
they get a copy.

Last year I did a presentation for the Boston Computer Society MacTech
group comparing a all the C compilers I knew of at the time. Since
then I have worked with MPW too. If people out there would like for me
to write and post a summary of that talk, I will do that.

-Zigurd