Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!bellcore!faline!ulysses!sfmag!sfsup!mpl
From: mpl@sfsup.UUCP (M.P.Lindner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 32bit = 16bit x 16bit
Message-ID: <2262@sfsup.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Oct-87 18:46:04 EST
Article-I.D.: sfsup.2262
Posted: Mon Oct 26 18:46:04 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Oct-87 06:37:31 EST
References: <1912@gryphon.CTS.COM> <3294@sol.ARPA> <2545@cbmvax.UUCP> <2565@cbmvax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T-IS, Summit N.J. USA
Lines: 50
Summary: the final word
Xref: mnetor comp.lang.c:5163 comp.sys.atari.st:5958 comp.sys.amiga:9998

In article <2565@cbmvax.UUCP>, grr@cbmvax.UUCP writes:
> In article <4261@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes:
> > In article <2545@cbmvax.UUCP> andy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel) writes:
> > >We at the Banzai Institute always use typedefs :-)
> > >To maintain readability, however, the names were a bit a bit boring, ie
> > >LONG, ULONG, WORD, UWORD, BYTE, UBYTE, and VOID.

Here's the final word on several offshoots to the original article I've been
reading.

1.
	> > 	I think your VOID definition is broken.  In the file
	> > exec/interrupts.h is the structure:
	> > 
	> > 	interrupt.is_Code	= (VOID) bar;

What you *should* be doing is
	interrupt.is_Code = (VOID (*)()) bar;

2. as for the person doing
	int	x;

	(long) (x * x)

What *you* should be doing is
	((long) x * x)
since you can't get back the 16 bits lost after you do the
multiply as a 16 bit quantity.

3. as for the people who say "Never use the basic types", I say the following:
	1. use "char" to mean a character or a byte (guaranteed in K&R)
	2. use short for a small integer
	3. use int where the size doesn't matter
	4. use long where you need a long (ie in interfacing to the
	   OS, etc.)
	5. use pointers with care
	6. use void where you mean void (either the compiler handles it
	   or it doesn't - if it does, great, if it doesn't, try "cc -Dvoid=int"
	   but don't go changint the input language because you have a bad
	   compiler.
	7. NEVER NEVER NEVER! use LONG, ULONG, VOID, etc.
	   if you're using ULONG because you want an unsigned 32 bit integer
	   try using
		typedef unsigned long	uint32;
		typedef long	int32;
	  so someone can try to figure out what bizzare thing you were trying
	  to do.

Mike Lindner
attunix!mpl