Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!uwvax!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!laidbak!guardian From: guardian@laidbak.UUCP (Harry Skelton) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: 'C' Standards Message-ID: <1112@laidbak.UUCP> Date: Wed, 19-Aug-87 10:42:27 EDT Article-I.D.: laidbak.1112 Posted: Wed Aug 19 10:42:27 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 22-Aug-87 01:55:19 EDT References: <166@qetzal.UUCP> <157@hobbes.UUCP> <875@bsu-cs.UUCP> <1219@cognos.UUCP> <25173@sun.uucp> <298@apex.UUCP> <2163@xanth.UUCP> Reply-To: guardian@laidbak.UUCP Organization: Personal Comment Lines: 38 Keywords: MSC,NULL segments Summary: A flaming pat on the back! In article <2163@xanth.UUCP> kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan) writes: : :[I just _know_ this is gonna get me flamed. Line eater, eat this posting!] : :Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how C is being warped, made :ugly and complex, because ONE microprocessor manufacturer couldn't see :fit to provide a flat, linear address space? How about if we just :write off the 8086 and 80286, and the usual mode of the 80386, and :design C as if pointers were NOT structures, there was only ONE :address zero, and so on? If someone _has_ to use those bizzare devices, :let him invent a compiler that reads "virtual machine C" (i.e., flat :address space) and kludges it for the weird case, but let the standard :C language treat the machine as if designed by a rational being. : :I don't think it is a useful endeavor to labor at such length to embed :the hardware design mistakes of the past in the C standards of the :future. >Kent, the man from xanth. [ Well Kent, - I guess I'll have to have the CO.2 standing by on this one too] I must agree to your idea of a generic 'C' without the games a compiler can play with memory space or the gazillion ways one can find a different version of 'int' laying about. As all of us 'programmers' are trying to make a 'C' standard, I think we fail to realize that standard is a old #2 pencil and not another refillable click pencil. [ as I hear the Bic lighters being kick started ] Let chars be 8 bits, ints be 2*8, longs be 4*8, doubles be 8*8 Float can be a kludge for those who can't think whole numbers or be a real function if the 'math co-processor' is present (hahaha). Just think - have a int be a int on any machine and know it's limitations!