On 2022-01-21 8:40 a.m., Alexander Bluhm wrote:
>>> There is no best, minimalistic and most consistent solution.
>>
>> I have always considered numberU as being the same type of thing as
>> using 'u_int' instead of 'int' for a variable, it is idiomatic C
>> to force all considerations into signed.
>>
>> If our system header files had 4000 lines with U, how many bugs
>> would get fixed incidentaly?
>>
>> It is a strong idiom.  A sad idiom, perhaps.  It wasn't needed in
>> historic C, a compiler would always generate the correct code, but
>> here we are.
> 
> Sounds like a call for the huge U change.
I've been curious about this for a long time; Would using
const uint16_t or uint32_t instead of proprocessor defines also make
sense anyway if the purpose is to stop the compiler from being
mysterious with implicit data types? I've never seen a compelling reason
to use defines when const variables get a degree of type protection and
misuse gets caught by the compiler much more quickly.

-- 
Ted Bullock <[email protected]>

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