portability; bit*

[alexc at dartvax.UUCP]

It isn't much of a portability argument that C runs on both  PDP-
11  and  370s.  Both are byte addressed, though I believe the 370
has more alignment constraints.

Contrast C implementation on a Honeywell  mainframe  (as,  I  be-
lieve,  Waterloo  has  done).  The machine is word addressed, not
byte  addressed.   However  there  are  string  instructions  and
pointers  which can index by a character count.  For that matter,
there are bit string instructions which can index by a bit count.
C  and  C programmers assume that the machine is easily character
addressed, but the language takes no notice of bit addressing.

I therefore propose that the bit type be added to C, with  atten-
dant bit*, bit[] bit(), etc.