I agree that the C flexible integer sizes were still necessary at the time of its creation, when some important computers still had word sizes that were not powers of two.
Nonetheless, I started to use C for programming only in 1990, when I got access to the Microsoft C and Borland Turbo C compilers.
At that time, 36 years ago, the C flexible integer sizes were already obsolete.
Since that time until now, while using C on a great variety of computers, from servers and workstations to the smallest microcontrollers, I have seen plenty of portability problems created by the existence of the flexible integer sizes.
The only programs that had no portability problems were those that never used the flexible integer sizes, but only integers with a definite size, e.g. 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit or 64-bit.
While sizeof solves the problems of memory allocation or copying, it does not help in preventing unexpected integer overflows, because even the size of "char" may be unknown, and even if the size of "char" is known, writing code with multiple paths that would check or prevent overflow for different integer sizes is very cumbersome.
Flexible integer sizes would work well only on the old computers, where integer overflow generated a hardware exception, so installing an overflow handler would have been sufficient to make the C code work correctly regardless of the size of the native integers.
> At that time, 36 years ago, the C flexible integer sizes were already obsolete.
This is a highly ignorant comment. You're confusing the fact that you only had to work with a single target architecture with the whole concept of multiple processor architectures being somehow obsolete, as if there was a sudden law of nature that forced every single computer, being full blown HPC stuff or small microcontrollers used in embedded applications.
Take a look at arduino. They still have 16-bit models out there. Also noteworthy, it seems some DSPs also have ints larger than 32 bits.
As I have said, I have not worked with a single architecture.
Before 1990, I had worked with a variety of ISAs, from IBM mainframes and DEC minicomputers to many kinds of microprocessors.
After 1990, I have used C on a great variety of x86, Motorola 68xxx, IBM/Motorola PowerPC and many generations of ARM ISAs.
Even if you use explicit 32-bit integers in a program, that will not create any correctness problem when the program is run on 16-bit microcontroller. At most such a program may have a suboptimal performance. Performance problems are much easier solved during porting than obscure bugs.
There have been some popular DSPs with 24-bit integers, e.g. Motorola 56xxx. Nonetheless, nobody would want to run on such a DSP a program that was written for another kind of CPU, even for another kind of DSP, because the performance would be pathetic. Any program for such a fixed-point DSP, even when derived from an existing program, would need to be rewritten while using at every point in the program the knowledge that the size of "int" is 24 bits (because the programs for fixed-point DSPs need copious amounts of scaling operations, to avoid overflows and underflows), so such a program should not actually use "int", but it should typedef an "int24_t", to make this assumption explicit.
adrian_b · · focus · HN ↗
Nonetheless, I started to use C for programming only in 1990, when I got access to the Microsoft C and Borland Turbo C compilers.
At that time, 36 years ago, the C flexible integer sizes were already obsolete.
Since that time until now, while using C on a great variety of computers, from servers and workstations to the smallest microcontrollers, I have seen plenty of portability problems created by the existence of the flexible integer sizes.
The only programs that had no portability problems were those that never used the flexible integer sizes, but only integers with a definite size, e.g. 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit or 64-bit.
While sizeof solves the problems of memory allocation or copying, it does not help in preventing unexpected integer overflows, because even the size of "char" may be unknown, and even if the size of "char" is known, writing code with multiple paths that would check or prevent overflow for different integer sizes is very cumbersome.
Flexible integer sizes would work well only on the old computers, where integer overflow generated a hardware exception, so installing an overflow handler would have been sufficient to make the C code work correctly regardless of the size of the native integers.
locknitpicker · · focus · HN ↗
This is a highly ignorant comment. You're confusing the fact that you only had to work with a single target architecture with the whole concept of multiple processor architectures being somehow obsolete, as if there was a sudden law of nature that forced every single computer, being full blown HPC stuff or small microcontrollers used in embedded applications.
Take a look at arduino. They still have 16-bit models out there. Also noteworthy, it seems some DSPs also have ints larger than 32 bits.
adrian_b · · focus · HN ↗
Before 1990, I had worked with a variety of ISAs, from IBM mainframes and DEC minicomputers to many kinds of microprocessors.
After 1990, I have used C on a great variety of x86, Motorola 68xxx, IBM/Motorola PowerPC and many generations of ARM ISAs.
Even if you use explicit 32-bit integers in a program, that will not create any correctness problem when the program is run on 16-bit microcontroller. At most such a program may have a suboptimal performance. Performance problems are much easier solved during porting than obscure bugs.
There have been some popular DSPs with 24-bit integers, e.g. Motorola 56xxx. Nonetheless, nobody would want to run on such a DSP a program that was written for another kind of CPU, even for another kind of DSP, because the performance would be pathetic. Any program for such a fixed-point DSP, even when derived from an existing program, would need to be rewritten while using at every point in the program the knowledge that the size of "int" is 24 bits (because the programs for fixed-point DSPs need copious amounts of scaling operations, to avoid overflows and underflows), so such a program should not actually use "int", but it should typedef an "int24_t", to make this assumption explicit.