Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nuchat!splut!jay
From: jay@splut.UUCP (Jay Maynard)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Long Chars
Message-ID: <439@splut.UUCP>
Date: 22 Mar 88 12:52:09 GMT
References: <7447@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Organization: Confederate Microsystems, League City, TX
Lines: 23

From article <7447@brl-smoke.ARPA>, by gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ):
> [...] Its only problem is that a fair amount of code has been
> written dependent on the assumption that sizeof(char)==1, although
> some programmers have been careful not to assume that all along. 

My initial knee-jerk reaction to this was "Hey, wait a minute!
sizeof(char) is defined to be 1!" Before I made a fool of myself on the
net (wouldn't be the first time...:-), though, I picked up the copy of
K&R that my recent desk-cleaning revealed. Sure enough, section 7.2, at
the top of page 188 in my copy, says:
"A _byte_ is undefined in the language except in terms of the value of
sizeof. However, IN ALL EXISTING IMPLEMENTATIONS a byte is the space
required to hold a char." (Emphasis added.)

I don't know how much existing code this would break (though I'd bet
there would be quite a bit of it). It does mean that I, too, will be
careful not to make that assumption...

-- 
Jay Maynard, EMT-P, K5ZC...>splut!< | GEnie: JAYMAYNARD  CI$: 71036,1603
uucp: {uunet!nuchat,academ!uhnix1,{ihnp4,bellcore,killer}!tness1}!splut!jay
Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.
The opinions herein are shared by none of my cats, much less anyone else.