OT: Language for the ages

On 10/15/05, woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> wrote: I'm not sure what you mean about CR-LF line endings being a problem for C. For text files the character '\n' returns the appropriate ending, whether it is CR-LF, CR, or LF. For binary files you shouldn't need to write carriage returns. Integral types in C aren't difficult. They are just flexible, and because they are flexible, you need to know the rules. A char needs to be able to hold at least 127 unique values which makes it at least 7 bits with one allowed "non-unique" value (for example +0 and -0 allowed to have different bit patterns but compare equal, or a value can be reserved for other purposes (signaling, I/O, etc)). That makes it a bit different from the other integral types which are required to behave in standard two's compliment fashion. Regardless of the number of bits or machine words used to store a char, the size of a char is 1 (sizeof(char)==1). If you want to know the number of "bits" in a char, there's always the CHAR_BIT macro. Whether char is unsigned or signed is implementation dependent. If you need one or the other use "signed char" or "unsigned char". An int needs to hold at least 65536 unique values (-32768..32767) (16 bits). I believe that it is required to be at least as large as a char. An unsigned long needs to be able to hold the values between 0 and 65535. Arithmetic must behave as if the numbers are stored as two's compliment [ (x | -1) == -1 , (x & -1) == x ] A long needs to be at least 32 bits and must the at least as large as an int. The size of a pointer needs to be at least as large as an int. Pointers to one type are not necessarily convertable to pointers to another type, although all pointers can be cast to void *. Avoid converting pointers into integral types. Do pointer math on pointers.