Brain Damage

COTTRELL, JAMES cottrell at nbs-vms.arpa
Thu Nov 28 06:54:48 AEST 1985


/*
> The problem is really the brain damage among UNIX hackers that  assumes
> sizeof(int) == sizeof (char *).  This is so painful to fix (for quick ports)
> that although the 68000's int should be 16 bits (the size that works best,
> fastest, ...) it is often made 32 bits.  While this avoids the pain for the
> porter, it does lead to problems for the end user (i.e. using short vs int).
> 
> Rich Hammond    (ihnp4|allegra|decvax|ucbvax) !bellcore!hammond

Sorry, but some of us *like* it that way. The 68k is a 32 bit machine in
spite of the fact that the bus is only 16 bits. 16 bit ints are stupid.
And sizeof(int) should be sizeof(any *) on any machine possible. 
Portability to lesser machines should be done *by the porter*. That's
why they call it porting. After all, this is still easier to do than
rewriting the program.

I can live with the new ANSI C recasting all my parameters for me.
I refuse to cast parameters to the `correct' type. And I refuse to
work on any machine where I need to. You want it, you fix it.

	jim		cottrell at nbs
*/
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