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From: djg@nscpdc.NSC.COM (Derek J. Godfrey)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: (unsigned)-1
Message-ID: <800@nscpdc.NSC.COM>
Date: Thu, 18-Dec-86 23:53:45 EST
Article-I.D.: nscpdc.800
Posted: Thu Dec 18 23:53:45 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 06:17:33 EST
References: <1382@hoptoad.uucp> <8322@lll-crg.ARpA> <2221@eagle.ukc.ac.uk> <5460@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Organization: National Semiconductor, Portland Development Center, Portland, OR
Lines: 16
Summary: 1-1-1-1

In article <5460@brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes:
[original poster?]
>Actually, I think (unsigned) -1 does have to give you a bit pattern of
>all 1's.

Enough! The C language conserns itself with the syntax and semantics
of its programs, not its pragmatisms(these are the concerns of compiler
writers and hackers :-) .)
	Firstly "all ones" is compiler/machine dependant - solveable
		if you know or can anticipate the representation
		of numbers made by your compiler.
		( 2's comp -1, mostly ~0, always #define ALL1S 0x????? )
	Secondly but more importantly what semantics do you attribute
	to "all ones?" this should dictate how to represent it. ( a
	collection of bits fields, a range a numbers (2^n -1 ) a
	combination of masks, or whatever.)