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

[Elmar Stellnberger]

How for the hell do you interface with operating system services 
requiring a 32bit int when you only have the 64bit INTEGER??

Am 28.05.15 um 19:46 schrieb Elmar Stellnberger:
> 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:
>
> :: 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.

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