Xref: utzoo gnu.g++.lib.bug:41 gnu.g++.bug:469
Path: utzoo!telly!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!columbia!cs!fox
From: fox@cs.cs.columbia.edu (David Fox)
Newsgroups: gnu.g++.lib.bug,gnu.g++.bug
Subject: bool too big
Message-ID: <FOX.89Apr19100254@cs.cs.columbia.edu>
Date: 19 Apr 89 14:02:54 GMT
Sender: news@cs.columbia.edu
Organization: Columbia University Computer Science
Lines: 28

It seems that the type "bool" defined in stddef.h uses four bytes to
store a truth value!  Witness:

	#include <stddef.h>
	#include <stream.h>

	main()
	{
	  bool x;
	  cout << sizeof (x) << "\n";
	}

When run:

	del:/tmp% g++-1.34.2 -O -g test.cc
	del:/tmp% a.out
	4
	del:/tmp%

This is both about libg++ and about g++ (and, I suppose, about C.)  I
guess I hoped that using enumerated types would at least buy me
objects of the smallest size necessary to hold the correct number of
alternatives.  I am opposed to changing the behavior of features
already established in C, but I would favor the addition of new
aggragate types to provide strongly typed and/or minimum size
enumerations.

David Fox