[M3devel] what to do about file sizes being 32bits?

[hendrik at topoi.pooq.com]

On Fri, Jan 08, 2010 at 11:44:48AM +0100, Olaf Wagner wrote:
> 
> Just my opinion of course. I don't really understand why you are so
> drastically opposing LONGINT suddenly. Probably I haven't been able to
> follow some of the arguments.

I could understand opposition to LONGINT if it were based on it being a 
kludge stuck in to quickly patch a problem while we spend time thinking 
about the real, elegant solution.  And having two types like INTEGER and 
LONGINT without one being a subrange of the other seems like a kludge to 
me, however necessary it also appears.

But let me ask a question.  Is there ever any need for a Modula 3 
compiler to implement a type like 0..1024 as more than 16 bits?  Even if 
INTEGER is 32 bits?

(I might have asked "more than 12 bits" in the above question, but 
modern 23-bit machines may very well have 16-bit operations but not 
12-bit operations.)

-- hendrik

P.S.  As far as I know, I don't think the C standard ever specifies that 
arithmetic operations on its file offset type (Is it offset_t?  I 
forget.) have any relation whatsoever to actual file position?  As far 
as I know, it could be a count of the number of bytes to read to reach 
that position, or it could consist of cylinder, track, and sector 
numbers, or it could even be encrypted.  Fie on the C implementor that 
does any of these things, though.