64 bit ints

[mcdonald at uxe.cso.uiuc.edu]

>Suppose I am designing a C compiler for a machine with 64bit
>words. "Char" should be 8bits of course and "long int" 64 since
>pointers will be.

>How long should an "int" be (32 or 64)? 
>How about a "short int" (16/32)?
>How is this decision altered if partial word accesses 
>are more expensive than full word accesses?
The answer here should be very clear:
     Make the compiler so that it can handle the general case of
           char    8 bits
           short int 16 bits
           int        32 bits
           long int    64 bits.

Then allow the user to specify, either by an "install" program,
by command line switches, by a "config" file, or by (gasp) pragmas,
whatever combination of shorts, ints and longs he wants, so
long as they fit the usual rules of C. Some people will use 
short = int = long int = 64 while others will put short = int = 16
and long int = 64 (to match pointers) or whatever.

Doug McDonald