Re: New VSI post on Youtube

On Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:12:09 -0400, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

On 8/16/2024 10:44 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

 
[POSIX] was an API that was careful to define higher-level types like
“time_t” and “uintptr_t” and “size_t”, precisely because the *nix
systems were at the forefront of the 64-bit transition and they had to
be prepared.

 
Those implementation specific types was sort of best try back in the
90's.
 
The approach has been mostly abandoned in newer languages.

We still use them. POSIX is still the dominant OS paradigm, the basis for
essentially all open-source software. Proprietary platforms like Windows
and VMS are measured by how POSIX-conformant they are. Which you can see
by the complexity of the special cases in the build scripts in that open-
source software, when trying to bring it up on those proprietary
platforms.

Actually, it’s more proper to say “Linux” rather than “POSIX”. POSIX
itself has become just a small part of what’s needed.

Today standard defined types are usually preferred.

We still have both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. Such generic types ease
the job of porting software between both.