On Fre, 2008-06-27 at 11:01 -0700, Christopher Li wrote: > > In C, there is no type "byte" (unless you typedef oder #define it). > > "byte" is usually (but not necessarily) meant as "unsigned char". > > In C spec, there is a concept of "byte". The union return by sizeof() I stand corrected. Hmm, I need the time to read C99 thoroughly. > is byte. Char must fit in a byte. But char does not necessary have the > same bits as byte. Char can have more. > > C99: 3.6, 3.7.1 > > Because char can always fit in byte, sizeof(char) == 1. But how can a char have more bits than a byte? > > IIRC C specifies that sizeof() returns values measured in chars, but > > I don't believe it specifies any mapping between the size of chars > > and the underlying addressing units --- it should be possible to use > > 16-bit chars, for example, on an 8-bit byte system. > Using 32-bit > > ints, sizeof(int) would then return 2; but you wouldn't be able to > > access individual bytes from C. > > sizeof() return value measure in _byte_. > C99: 6.5.3.4 Yes. But "sizeof(char)" is always 1 (as stated in the same chapter). So I see no real difference between "byte" and "char" (at least with the size of them). Bernd -- Firmix Software GmbH http://www.firmix.at/ mobil: +43 664 4416156 fax: +43 1 7890849-55 Embedded Linux Development and Services -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-sparse" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
