From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: kaz@helios.crest.nt.com (Kaz Kylheku) Subject: Re: Porting Experiences (was Ada and Pascal etc ) Date: 1997/11/03 Message-ID: <63mcmm$r3s$1@helios.crest.nt.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 286907535 References: <34557f2b.1934172@news.mindspring.com> <345BB35E.4488@dynamite.com.au> <63ftj9$r9g@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net> <345E3ACD.A15@gsg.eds.com> Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++ Date: 1997-11-03T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <345E3ACD.A15@gsg.eds.com>, Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz wrote: >Craig Franck wrote: > >> What is it about Ada that makes it portable? > >How about the ability to define variables by their range instead of >using implimentation-dependent terms like long and short? That's >certainly the most glaring deficiency in C with regard to portability. That depends on how you look at it. I'd say that it requires a little more thought and skill to write portably with types that have sizes that are not fully specified, but it's not impossible. C gives you a header, , which gives you the constants LONG_MIN and LONG_MAX. These tell you what the implementation's least and greatest values of type long are. These values are guaranteed to be at least -2^31+1 and 2^31-1 respectively. If you assume that the long type has a range that is no larger than this, you are OK. If you write your code under the assumption that the range is LONG_MIN to LONG_MAX, you are also OK. Sure, you might not be able to declare subtypes with more restricted ranges like in Ada, but that doesn't mean that portability has gone out the window! -- "In My Egotistical Opinion, most people's C programs should be indented six feet downward and covered with dirt." -- Blair P. Houghton