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From: Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2022 11:45:40 -0400
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To: Bakul Shah <bakul@iitbombay.org>
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Subject: [TUHS] Re: Does anybody know the etymology of the term "word" as in collection of bits?
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On 9/11/22, Bakul Shah <bakul@iitbombay.org> wrote:
>
> C's INT_MAX, LONG_MAX etc are kind of an environment enquiry...

What size to use in  C for int and long (pointers had to be 64-bit; no
issue there) was a big headache for DEC in the migration of Unix
(Ultrix) from VAX to Alpha.   The first C compiler implementation used
ILP64 (64 bits for int, long, and pointer) and ran afoul of a lot of
code that assumed an int was 32 bits.  ILP64 vs. LP64 because as
divisive an issue as the big-endian vs. little-endian debate.

-Paul W.