nanogui: typedef int MWBOOL;
Subject:
Re: [nanogui] typedef int MWBOOL;
From:
"Greg Haerr" ####@####.####
Date:
4 Jan 2002 05:58:50 -0000
Message-Id: <005701c194e3$849c3000$3aba46a6@xmission.com>
: Unless I'm mistaken, a boolean value take either the value "true" or
: "false", some prefer to use "1" or "0", etc. But in all cases, it has
: only 2 possible values, shouldn't a unsigned char be more than
: sufficient to store it instead a wasting 4 bytes of data for it?
The reason for this has to do with some old-time issues
with C compilers. Take the following function:
int a = -1;
unsigned char f(void)
{
return a;
}
vs
int f(void)
{
return a;
}
if MWBOOL is used completely arbitrarily, such as for the use of
function return values, then it's a much better idea to declare a function
returning int than char, for sign extension and other old-fashioned C
reasons. It is for this reason and other similar reasons
that most other software systems will always
typedef a boolean to be an int, rather than a char size.
Many systems have big issues with taking the address of a char
sized parameter, placed as an int on the stack, as well. There are
too many problems with older C compilers to use a "char" data
type for anything other than a known packed array.
Regards,
Greg
