What platforms have something other than 8-bit char?

by

char is also 16 bit on the Texas Instruments C54x DSPs, which turned up for example in OMAP2. There are other DSPs out there with 16 and 32 bit char. I think I even heard about a 24-bit DSP, but I can’t remember what, so maybe I imagined it.

Another consideration is that POSIX mandates CHAR_BIT == 8. So if you’re using POSIX you can assume it. If someone later needs to port your code to a near-implementation of POSIX, that just so happens to have the functions you use but a different size char, that’s their bad luck.

In general, though, I think it’s almost always easier to work around the issue than to think about it. Just type CHAR_BIT. If you want an exact 8 bit type, use int8_t. Your code will noisily fail to compile on implementations which don’t provide one, instead of silently using a size you didn’t expect. At the very least, if I hit a case where I had a good reason to assume it, then I’d assert it.

More Related Contents:

  1. How to get current time and date in C++?
  2. C++ Cross-Platform High-Resolution Timer
  3. How to detect reliably Mac OS X, iOS, Linux, Windows in C preprocessor? [duplicate]
  4. How to get available memory C++/g++?
  5. What belongs in an educational tool to demonstrate the unwarranted assumptions people make in C/C++?
  6. Where is Boost.Process?
  7. How to identify platform/compiler from preprocessor macros?
  8. Fast Cross-Platform C/C++ Image Processing Libraries
  9. Is there a 128 bit integer in C++?
  10. Using CMake to generate Visual Studio C++ project files
  11. Is there any LAME C++ wrapper\simplifier (working on Linux Mac and Win from pure code)?
  12. Cross platform format string for variables of type size_t? [duplicate]
  13. Can I use boost library for crossplatform application executing?
  14. How do I clear the console in BOTH Windows and Linux using C++
  15. Possible causes for Boost not being found by CMake in certain situations?
  16. What is the NDEBUG preprocessor macro used for (on different platforms)?
  17. stl random distributions and portability
  18. Cross Platform Way to make a directory including subfolders?
  19. What is a vector of vector of point? [closed]
  20. Complete noob :Error3error C4700: uninitialized local variable radius used [closed]
  21. C++11 inheriting constructors and access modifiers
  22. How do I sort the texture positions based on the texture indices given in a Wavefront (.obj) file?
  23. what is the difference between set and unordered_set in C++?
  24. Unoptimized clang++ code generates unneeded “movl $0, -4(%rbp)” in a trivial main()
  25. What is the fastest way to change a key of an element inside std::map
  26. Convert C++ function pointer to c function pointer
  27. Critique my non-intrusive heap debugger
  28. How to detect IP address change programmatically in Linux?
  29. Unbuffered output with cout
  30. Is it legal for a C++ optimizer to reorder calls to clock()?

Leave a Comment