Re: New VSI post on Youtube

On 8/21/2024 4:21 AM, John Reagan wrote:

Yes, all good points.  The size_t and offset_t = 32-bits and ptrdiff_t = 32-bits on Alpha/Itanium started the mess years ago.
 Personally, I would have kept all the defaults the same as Itanium but got "convinced" to go wider.  The first attempt was ONLY 64-bit pointers on x86 with C++ but things like those pesky descriptors and itemlists got in the way.
 I did suggest an LP64, ILP32, etc qualifier but mostly got blank stares from other engineers as "too nerdy"
 long == 64-bits has caused us to make changes as prior header writers assumed that long was 32-bits.  They should have all followed Arne's advice and used int32_t and int64_t when specifying their ABIs.
 I'll can take some ownership on the changes, but I suffered with years of "John, why is size_t 32-bits?  Why does subtracting two 64-bit pointers only give me a 32-bit result?"

Hindsight is always easy.
:-)
Knowing what we know now then I think that:
* an option to change size of long
* having CXX command default to 32 bit pointers and 32 bit long
   with two options to go 64 bit (pointer do already have it)
* having clang command go more pure 64 bit
may have been the right path.
But too late.
Well - not too late for /LONG=32 and /LONG=64 !
Arne