[comp.lang.c] wide arguments and/or argument widening

gl8f@bessel.acc.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) (12/05/88)

Why are arguments to C functions always widened to ints or doubles? This
makes sense when the argument is being widened to the buswidth (which
ints are supposed to be), but doubles are often larger than that. And
widening to ints can cause trouble when you're doing weird things such
as using 32 bit ints on a 68000 for compatibility reasons...

advance thanks,

-- greg

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Greg Lindahl                                    internet:  gl8f@virginia.edu
University of Virginia Department of Astronomy    bitnet:  gl8f@virginia.bitnet
"When a 300' dish falls in the woods, and nobody hears, does it make a sound?"

gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn ) (12/06/88)

In article <847@hudson.acc.virginia.edu> gl8f@Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes:
>Why are arguments to C functions always widened to ints or doubles?

Historical PDP-11ish reasons.  Don't worry about it.  Fixed for the most
part in ANSI C.