Subject: Re: [OT] Any sources for PDP-11 spares?
To: None <port-vax@netbsd.org, port-pdp10@netbsd.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-pdp10
Date: 06/11/2002 15:46:43
>> Hmm?  I think it's an excellent way to smoke out those hidden
>> assumptions about word size.

> Those assumptions are not especially well hidden, things like:
> 	char c[4];
> 	int32_t b;
> 	b = c[0] << 24 | c[1] << 16 | c[2] << 8 | c[3];

Eh.  Yes, "hidden" was not the right word.  "Depressingly pervasive",
maybe.  Or perhaps "hidden in plain sight", by not being easy to find
mechanically.  (Grepping for int32_t is easy to automate.  Telling
which ones should be int_least32_t is not.  And finding all the places
where you have (say) 17 where you mean (2*CHAR_BIT)+1, that is
difficult enough even for a human.)

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