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C's Flexible Integer Sizes Were Not a Design Mistake

113 points · 166 comments · ibobev

  1. InvisibleUp · · focus · HN ↗
    Where the flexible integer sizes break the most is when dealing with ABIs, which weren&#x27;t really a concern before dynamic linking existed but are very much a concern today. We&#x27;ve also, for some reason, decided that the standard way of defining a library ABI is with a C header. That means that everyone has to worry about precisely defining integer sizes, as well as more esoteric types like size_t or intmax_t. Good writeup on all that here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thephd.dev&#x2F;to-save-c-we-must-save-abi-fixing-c-function-abi" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thephd.dev&#x2F;to-save-c-we-must-save-abi-fixing-c-funct...
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