Re: [Groff] integer size

[Werner LEMBERG]

> But it is not cleanly programmed.  It depends on the quite arbitrary
> behavior of the GNU utilities to have the int types 32 bits, while
> ANSI garantees only long to have that length.

groff had always int = 32bit in mind, from the very beginning.

> I use the following clutch to optimize memory usage.
> 
> # define INTEGER_LENGTH (32 / 8)
> # if sizeof(int) >= INTEGER_LENGTH
>   typedef int Integer;
> # else
>   typedef long int Integer;
> # endif

This doesn't work, as Larry has told you.  In the FreeType library
(which cleanly compiles on 16, 32, and 64bit platforms), we use the
following in `ANSI' mode (i.e., without using a configure script to
test for the width of the int type):

  /* We use <limits.h> values to know the sizes of the types.  */
  #include <limits.h>

  /* The number of bytes in an `int' type.  */
  #if   UINT_MAX == 0xFFFFFFFFUL
  #define FT_SIZEOF_INT  4
  #elif UINT_MAX == 0xFFFFU
  #define FT_SIZEOF_INT  2
  #elif UINT_MAX > 0xFFFFFFFFU && UINT_MAX == 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFU
  #define FT_SIZEOF_INT  8
  #else
  #error "Unsupported number of bytes in `int' type!"
  #endif

  /* The number of bytes in a `long' type.  */
  #if   ULONG_MAX == 0xFFFFFFFFUL
  #define FT_SIZEOF_LONG  4
  #elif ULONG_MAX > 0xFFFFFFFFU && ULONG_MAX == 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFU
  #define FT_SIZEOF_LONG  8
  #else
  #error "Unsupported number of bytes in `long' type!"
  #endif

The code goes on rather lengthy to typedef the various integer types
in dependency on those macros.

To be honest, I don't want such code in groff.  Maybe this decision
limits the available platforms groff can be used on, but it makes life
simpler.  Another argument: Until now, there was not a single
complaint or bug report regarding this issue.

> BTW, I finished the libdriver/input.cc file.  Do you need it
> urgently, or are there some more days left for polishing?

I won't start work before next week.


    Werner