[Courses] [C] Current topic: variables in C.

[Julie]

Charlotte Oliver wrote:
> 
> On Sat, Jun 08, 2002 at 11:36:14PM -0600, Val Henson wrote:
> > Oo, here's a good question:
> >
> > "Why does C have this nasty int, char, long stuff?  Why didn't they
> > just say 8_bit_type and 16_bit_type instead of all these complicated
> > rules about int being at least 2 bytes but less than or equal to long,
> > etc., etc., etc.?"
> >
> > If anyone is interested, pipe up.
> 
> Sure!  Why didn't they just make them more simplistic, or does that
> have to do with features being added over time?

I think the real answer is that Way Back When, not all machines
even had 8-bit bytes.  C has run on machines with all manner of
weird words sizes, including 36-bit and 60-bit and before it was
really popular, 64-bit.

In practice, "short", "int" and "long" have worked pretty well,
I suppose.
-- 
Julianne Frances Haugh             Life is either a daring adventure
jockgrrl at austin.rr.com                 or nothing at all.
					    -- Helen Keller