Re: How should ObjC encode 'long'?

[Ziemowit Laski]

On 27 Jan, 2004, at 14.37, Kaelin Colclasure wrote:

> On Jan 26, 2004, at 7:09 PM, Ziemowit Laski wrote:
>
> > Currently, ObjC encodes 'long' as 'l' (and 'unsigned long' as 'L'), 
> > but only if
> > sizeof(long) == sizeof(int).  On LP64 targets, where sizeof(long) == 
> > 2 * sizeof(int),
> > 'long' and 'unsigned long' get encoded as 'q' and 'Q', respectively, 
> > instead.
> >
> > Personally, I tend to think that this is broken, and that long should 
> > always be 'l',
> > regardless of its size.  However, I can also see an ABI argument 
> > (esp. in the context
> > of distributed objects) that would lead to the opposite conclusion.
> >
> > What do you all think?
>
> I would assume the whole point of "encoding" is to externalize the 
> relevant type information. And if it's for external consumption, it 
> needs to be fully self-describing. 'q' and 'Q' unambiguously denote a 
> signed / unsigned quadword... Seems like exactly the right thing.

Yes, this seems to be the consensus, and so it shall stay. :-)

--Zem
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Ziemowit Laski                 1 Infinite Loop, MS 301-2K
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