> well.  that must have made porting somewhat annoying?

Not really; portable programs have NEVER been allowed to assume that 'char'
was signed. A careful reading of K&R and ANSI references will confirm it.

This is just one of those dumb things about C that people simply do not
expect, because so much else in C makes incredibly perfect sense...

> OK for your trouble you avoid one (sign extension) instruction
> when you operate on a char.

That is _precisely_ why it is done.

PowerPC compilers are pretty consistent about doing this because (a) PowerPC
does not have a signed 8-bit load (argh!!) and (b) the C language allows it.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ best.com