[M3devel] 64bit INTEGERs, WIDECHAR: language specified or configuration/target dependent?

[Hendrik Boom]

On Thu, May 28, 2015 at 07:46:12PM +0200, Elmar Stellnberger wrote:
> Am 28.05.15 um 04:03 schrieb Antony Hosking:
> >BYTESIZE(ADDRESS) = BYTESIZE(INTEGER) in cm3 on all target platforms. I don't really understand what you are proposing.
> >
> on AMD64: BITSIZE(INTEGER) = BITSIZE(LONGINT) = 64bit
> 
> I have just noticed that and when taking a practical standpoint -
> i.e. what really matters to new and old programs -
> this is a really bad decision which I wish to change for the next release.
> 
> If you have not examined it yet please reclaim the design decisions
> for leaving int 32bit in C:
> 
> /However things turned out to be very different when the extension from
> 32bit to 64bit was at stake. There was no more gain by automatically
> extending the value ranges from 2^32  to 2^64  for 95% of all application
> purposes while the memory hierarchy has increasingly become a bottle
> neck in recent time. Additionally doubling the size of all integers would
> initially have doubled our memory needs which would have been a
> potential drawback for introducing the AMD64 arch. Just think of a machine
> with 4GB of RAM: It can not be addressed by 32bit (only ~3GB can) while
> making all INTS 64bit would have shrunken our memory to an effective size
> of 2GB. Luckily the decision was taken differently this time:
> 
> * keep all ints of at most 32bit and just extend pointers to 64bit
> /
> 
>  Same reasoning applies to Modula-3. - and I believe you have failed
> to notice when
> making your decisions for cm3 5.8.6. Or do you want to tell me that
> Modula-3
> developers are more prudent than the C/C++ community?
> 
>   Even worse I have discovered the following:
> BITS 8 FOR INTEGER and BITS 32 FOR INTEGER do not work with cm3 5.8.6:

As I understand it from Rodney Bates' reply to my recent post,
BITS 8 FOR INTEGER should never have worked.  BITS 32 FOR INTEGER 
should work only if INTEGER is 32 bits wide.

> 
> :: BITS FOR size too small, must be at least (64)
> 
> That will break existing legacy code when trying to compile it with
> cm3 5.8.6.