What should the 64-bit type on new, 64-bit machines be?
Some vendors of C products for 64-bit machines support 64-bit long ints. Others fear that too much existing code is written to assume that ints and longs are the same size, or that one or the other of them is exactly 32 bits, and introduce a new, nonstandard, 64-bit long long (or __longlong) type instead.
Programmers interested in writing portable code should therefore insulate their 64-bit type needs behind appropriate typedefs. Vendors who feel compelled to introduce a new, longer integral type should advertise it as being ``at least 64 bits'' (which is truly new, a type traditional C does not have), and not ``exactly 64 bits.''
References:
ANSI Sec. F.5.6
ISO Sec. G.5.6
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This page by Steve Summit // Copyright 1995 // mail feedback