Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!sundc!hadron!jsdy
From: jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: (unsigned)-1
Message-ID: <344@hadron.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Dec-86 19:34:33 EST
Article-I.D.: hadron.344
Posted: Mon Dec 29 19:34:33 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Dec-86 18:43:26 EST
References: <1382@hoptoad.uucp> <8322@lll-crg.ARpA>
Reply-To: jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao)
Organization: Hadron, Inc., Fairfax, VA
Lines: 36
Summary: Attempt to explicate

In article <646@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> ballou@brahms.Berkeley.EDU (Kenneth R. Ballou) writes:
>In article <800@nscpdc.NSC.COM> djg@nscpdc.NSC.COM (Derek J. Godfrey) writes:
>>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 :-) .)

Those "pragmatisms"  a r e  the semantics, and legitimate concerns.
Implementation details, of course, are implementation details; but
the meaning (semantics) of the language does not fall into that
category!  Compiler writers may not interpret (except where the
standard explicitly allows).  Compiler hackers, alas, often do.

>>		         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.)
>
>	Again, I do not understand your point.  Could you please offer a
>clarification?

Ken, I thnk that djg is just trying to repeat again, the
First Law of Software Engineering:
	"Say What you Mean."
In other words, he is assuming that people might want to
set a word to ones as an alias for, e.g., some bit fields,
or "the highest number," or whatever; and that in those
instances they should use the appropriate constant instead.
And insofar as that goes, of course, he is absolutely right.

Of course, sometimes (bit-map graphics?) you  d o  just
want your ones.

"A cigar is sometimes just a cigar." - S. Freud
-- 

	Joe Yao		hadron!jsdy@seismo.{CSS.GOV,ARPA,UUCP}
			jsdy@hadron.COM (not yet domainised)