Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: sizeof (integral types)
Message-ID: <1514@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 28 Apr 89 10:29:59 GMT
References: <10044@smoke.BRL.MIL> <7.UUL1.3#5109@pantor.UUCP> <5387@xyzzy.UUCP> <2199@pur-phy>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 14

>The above was given only as an example of how an ANSI compliant C
>could define these values, but why not make INT_MIN -32768?

To allow ANSI C to be implemented on machines with, say, 16-bit "int"s
and a one's complement or sign-magnitude representation of integral
types.

>In either case, I want to be able to access all possible values with
>my bits, regardless of whether or not my variable is signed.

Then don't buy one's complement or sign-magnitude machines.  The pANS
doesn't *require* that you be able to represent -32768 as an "int", but
it doesn't *forbid* it, either.  (What happens to "-0" on a one's
complement or sign-magnitude machine?)