16 Aug
2024
16 Aug
'24
1:39 a.m.
On 2024-08-15 6:46 p.m., Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
When I was teaching C, it was sometimes quite
difficult to help students
who had firm assumptions about things that you can'r assume. Such as
the sequence of operations in the multiple iterations examples that we
both used. I tried desperately to get them to do extensive commnets,
and use typecasts even when they could have been left out.
I keep assuming C is still 16 bit K&R. Software tends to depend on the
fact bytes are 8 bits, and every thing a 2,4,8 bytes wide and the newest
hardware/software/underwear^H^H^H^H^H^H^H is the best.
PL/I tried to fit data types, to have variable width that I think was a
good idea. foobar Binary:unsigned:36 bits:mixed endian,volatile,module
blah,dynamic array x y z. It least then you know what foobar does.
HUMBUG foo, not so clear.
Ben, still thinking 18 bit computers are just the right size for
personal use, and some day I will have hardware.