Re: What Defins the "C" Language?

From: Chris Croughton (chris_at_keristor.net)
Date: 12/03/04 

Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 18:05:42 +0000

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 10:03:48 -0500, Xenos
   <dont.spam.me@spamhate.com> wrote:

> "Richard Tobin" <richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> wrote in message
> news:copu7s$19q7$1@pc-news.cogsci.ed.ac.uk...
>> In article <copt6n$9kr3@cui1.lmms.lmco.com>,
>> Xenos <dont.spam.me@spamhate.com> wrote:
>>
>> >You are implying that all current machine use 8-bit bytes. There
>> >are more computers out there than just PCs. Ever had to program a
>> >DSP?
>>
>> This is true, but you exaggerate: you don't have to restrict yourself
>> to PCs to only encounter 8-bit bytes.
>>
> I didn't intend to exaggerate, nor imply that there weren't 8-bit
> processors outside of the PC realm.

That is, however, what you did imply. IBM have used 8-bit bytes from
the mid 1960s, DEC since the PDP-11, etc. Most of the manufacturers who
have used other sizes haven't called them 'bytes'.

> My only point was that many programmers seem to (in my opinion) to
> have a pc-centric view, and don't realize that there are a lot of
> systems that do not conform to that architecture. I don't see how you
> can infer from my previous statement that I thought 8-bit processors
> were exclusive to the PC.

Perhaps because you said "There are more computers out there than just
PCs", implying that only PCs have 8 bit bytes. Very few of the
computers in the real world have anything other than 8 bit bytes now
(apart from some dinosaurs, most of those with other byte sizes are in
embedded systems), and few of them are programmed much in C. Indeed,
most of the software available in source form will break (often
horribly) if the byte size is different.

Chris C

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