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From: manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vincent Manis)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,net.sources
Subject: Re: binary radix (+ some source)
Message-ID: <1284@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Apr-87 12:15:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.1284
Posted: Thu Apr 23 12:15:18 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Apr-87 14:57:12 EST
References: <213@pyuxe.UUCP> <710@brl-sem.ARPA> <422@ivax.doc.ic.ac.uk> <2970@pegasus.UUCP> <581@csun.UUCP>
Reply-To: manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vincent Manis)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science
Lines: 35
Keywords: octal, hex, binary
Xref: mnetor comp.lang.c:1870 net.sources:4366

Mike Stump proposes changing compilers to support binary radix. While I
support the 'b' notation (and hope that X3J11 will consider including it), I
*strongly* disagree with the notion of bringing language changes in by
changing compilers.

First: what are the precise semantics? Are they *exactly* the same as 0x?
This is not an entirely trivial question: remember the difference between
signed and unsigned, depending on whether a value is decimal or hex. Will
all compiler changers do it ``right''?

More important, what is to stop a compiler changer from adding more goodies,
say the proposed [...] notation for expressions which may not be optimised, 
or subrange types, or ... ? I'm not saying any of these are bad, but what
happens to C's portability when every compiler accepts a peculiar language 
of its own making? (I say this having, with great trepidation, added a number
of trivial language features to a BCPL compiler once. When I handed the
compiler over to another person, and went away for a month, I came back only
to find that the language accepted by the compiler had changed radically.)

There are certainly defects in C, as are there defects in UNIX (what good
can you say about a system call named 'creat'???) But the whole point in
standardisation is so that we can take code and run it on a new machine or
compiler, with no horde of #ifdefs protecting various quirky features.

Thanks, Mike, but no, thanks. 

-----
Vincent Manis                {seismo,uw-beaver}!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!manis
Dept. of Computer Science    manis@cs.ubc.cdn
Univ. of British Columbia    manis%ubc.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa  
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1W5      manis@ubc.csnet
(604) 228-6770 or 228-3061

"Long live the ideals of Marxism-Lennonism! May the thoughts of Groucho
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