Uriel wrote: > found this gem in one of the many X headers: > #define NBBY 8 /* number of bits in a byte */
So what is supposed to be wrong with using a manifest constant instead of hard-coding "8" in various places? As I recall, The Elements of Programming Style recommended this approach. Similar definitions have been in Unix system headers for decades. CHAR_BIT is defined in <limits.h>. (Yes, I know there is a difference between a char and a byte. Less well known, there is a difference between a byte and an octet.) I'm not saying that some of the complaints don't have a point, especially when important tools perform poorly. However, I've observed an unusal degree of arrogance in the Plan 9 newsgroup, approaching religion. Plan 9's way of doing things is not the only intelligent way; others may have different goals and constraints that affect how they do things in their particular environments.
