Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!ncar!ames!think!bloom-beacon!ZERMATT.LCS.MIT.EDU!RWS
From: RWS@ZERMATT.LCS.MIT.EDU (Robert Scheifler)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Xtk "unsigned int" typedefs considered harmful
Message-ID: <19880926232355.6.RWS@KILLINGTON.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Date: 26 Sep 88 23:23:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 11

In the Intrinsics implementation to be shipped by MIT in R3, Position is
"short" and Dimension is "unsigned short".  The types were changed to
shorts to conserve space (widgets are relatively expensive).  To give
protocol-equivalent value ranges on 16-bit architectures, Dimension
cannot be "short".  Programmers should not depend on whether Position
and Dimension are 16 or 32 or 64 bits, but they should know that
Position is signed and Dimension is unsigned.  The use of unsigneds as
cardinals is probably "the wrong thing" (you don't have to argue too
loudly, I know how many times it's bitten us in the server), but it is
consistent with the Xlib interface, and the space savings in using
shorts is useful.