C trivia - was Re: Dennis Ritchie has died

On Sat, 15 Oct 2011, ben wrote: I don't know from no "bible". First edition of K&R explicitly stated that the sizes are NOT fixed, that "int" is whatever size is most practical to implement for the compiler, and that the ONLY given is that "char" must not be a LARGER data type than "int", and that "long" must not be a SMALLER data type than "int". It was quite common for "int" to be signed 16 bit, with "char" being 8 bit (although either signed or unsigned), and "long" was usually signed 32 bit. But K&R explicitly said not to EXPECT that. FAT16, for example used a SIGNED long for both the file size and for the maximum partition size. Therefore, instead of 0 to 4GB, the range was -2GB to +2GB That opens up some interesting possibilities! I stepped on the DIR of a floppy disk, and created a -2GB file. I then copied that file to an almost full hard disk, in order to get more disk space without the DANGERS! of compression. It didn't work. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com