Re: Reasonable Assumptions Regarding sizeof(char)

From:

"Le Chaud Lapin" <jaibuduvin@gmail.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.c++.moderated

Date:

27 Nov 2006 21:33:54 -0500

Message-ID:

<1164674766.361600.135330@l39g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>

Niklas Matthies wrote:

On 2006-11-27 13:34, Le Chaud Lapin wrote:

I'm wondering: Why would you want to use char (instead of int) for a
big-integer class?

I am using unsigned int, based on feedback in a concurrent thread
discussing what is the most "natural" unsigned int for a class.

Every data-oriented class in my library has built-in serialization
support. I had always assumed that I could circumvent size and
endianess incompatibilities when doing inter-machine serialization
until yesterday when I realized that a machine that does not have
8-bit-byte-addressibility will be a real pain.

That got me thinking beyond my class Integer, about my other classes,
and I realize that, without the 8-bit-byte assumption, my framework
starts to fall apart.

I am a huge fan of portability, but rationality must also come into
play - I am not about to go chasing afer 9-bit bytes for portability's
sake. OTOH, it would nice to know of any major surprises. DSP code, I
think, is exempt. But I would be very interested in knowing if any
general-purpose CPU's did something other than 8-bit.

-Le Chaud Lapin-

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