64 bit architectures and C/C++

[John R. MacMillan]

|>|It is necessary to have 8, 16, and 32-bit data types, in order to be able
|>|to read data from files.
|>It's not necessary, but it does make it easier.
|
|Not even that.  Assuming that for some unknown reason you're faced with
|reading a binary file that originated on some other system, there is a
|fair chance that it used a "big endian" architecture while your system
|is "little endian" or vice-versa.

I certainly didn't mean to imply that this would help something be
universally portable; rather that if you're _lucky_ and the endianess
is the same, having the right size data types available might make
that single port easier.

|Binary data transportability is a much thornier issue than most people
|realize.

Yes, I've seen many ``portable'' binary formats that simply weren't.