Hello, everybody!
I noticed a lot of confusion about Integer types in GNU Pascal.
As I wrote in "info -f gpc -n Integer", these are
bits signed unsigned C equivalent
8 ByteInt Byte [unsigned|signed] char 16 ShortInt ShortWord [unsigned] short 32 Integer Word [unsigned] int == long 64 LongInt LongWord [unsigned] long long
(BTW: The number of bits is the same on all platforms, isn't it?)
I was told more than once that `Word' should have 16 bits (like in Borland Pascal). I made it 32 bits because this is the "natural" size on a 32-bit system (like GPC), and it has the same size as `Integer' (like in Borland Pascal;-).
AFAIK, a "word" is defined to be the "natural" unit of the computer, but maybe this definition has changed since I have learned it. If the definition of a word is indeed "16 bits" now, I should change GPC's behaviour. In this case I would appreciate suggestions how to rename all GPC Integer types above (which I wouldn't like to do because I find the above quite consistent).
Greetings,
Peter
Dipl.-Phys. Peter Gerwinski, Essen, Germany, free physicist and programmer peter.gerwinski@uni-essen.de - http://home.pages.de/~peter.gerwinski/ [970201] maintainer GNU Pascal [970510] - http://home.pages.de/~gnu-pascal/ [970125]