`Word' data type

Fri, 13 Jun 1997 17:24:09 +0200 (MET DST)

Hello, everybody!

I noticed a lot of confusion about Integer types in GNU Pascal.

As I wrote in "info -f gpc -n Integer", these are

     bits      signed       unsigned       C equivalent

       8       ByteInt      Byte           [unsigned|signed] char
      16       ShortInt     ShortWord      [unsigned] short
      32       Integer      Word           [unsigned] int == long
      64       LongInt      LongWord       [unsigned] long long

(BTW:  The number of bits is the same on all platforms, isn't it?)

I was told more than once that `Word' should have 16 bits (like in
Borland Pascal).  I made it 32 bits because this is the "natural"
size on a 32-bit system (like GPC), and it has the same size as
`Integer' (like in Borland Pascal;-).

AFAIK, a "word" is defined to be the "natural" unit of the computer,
but maybe this definition has changed since I have learned it.  If the 
definition of a word is indeed "16 bits" now, I should change GPC's
behaviour.  In this case I would appreciate suggestions how to rename
all GPC Integer types above (which I wouldn't like to do because I find
the above quite consistent).

Greetings,

    Peter

 Dipl.-Phys. Peter Gerwinski, Essen, Germany, free physicist and programmer
peter.gerwinski@uni-essen.de - http://home.pages.de/~peter.gerwinski/ [970201]
 maintainer GNU Pascal [970510] - http://home.pages.de/~gnu-pascal/ [970125]

Peter Gerwinski (peter@agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de)