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From: Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: technology discussion =?utf-8?Q?=E2=86=92?= does the world need
 a "new" C ?
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2024 16:04:53 -0700
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bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
> On 06/07/2024 02:38, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> On Fri, 5 Jul 2024 14:31:44 +0100, bart wrote:
>> 
>>> C also is the only language that is supposed to work on any kind of
>>> processor ...
>> I don’t think there is anything innate in the design of C to ensure
>> that.
>> It was simply its popularity that meant it was usually the first language
>> implemented on a new processor.
>> For example, C assumes byte addressability.
>
> C didn't define a 'byte' at all. It assumed 'char' addressability, but
> allowed that 'char' to be any width at all. I think at some point a
> minimum of 8 bits was applied.

What???

C defines a "byte" as an "addressable unit of data storage large enough
to hold any member of the basic character set of the execution
environment".  You know that.  C references going back to 1974 all talk
about bytes (the early ones are specific to the PDP-11).

Perhaps you meant that there's no predefined type named "byte", but
nobody said there was.

The requirement that a byte is at least 8 bits goes back at least to
C89.  K&R1 (1978) doesn't make this requirement explicit, but shows
examples of 8- and 9-bit bytes.

[...]

> Most of today's hardware evolved from such a model: 32- and 64-bit
> words and addresses were an obvious natural progression. C however
> still hasn't got the memo.

Right, C makes it *so* difficult to support systems with 8-bit bytes and
32- or 64-bit word.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */