Improve doc for use of 'int', and discuss 'ssize_t'.

* internals.texi (C Integer Types): Mention 'int' for other
randomish values that lie in 'int' range.  Mention 'ssize_t'.  See:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2014-10/msg00019.html
This commit is contained in:
Paul Eggert 2014-10-01 13:34:55 -07:00
parent a57fa9642d
commit c59ef5ef53
2 changed files with 18 additions and 0 deletions

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@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
2014-10-01 Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
Improve doc for use of 'int', and discuss 'ssize_t'.
* internals.texi (C Integer Types): Mention 'int' for other
randomish values that lie in 'int' range. Mention 'ssize_t'. See:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2014-10/msg00019.html
Use AUTO_CONS instead of SCOPED_CONS, etc.
* internals.texi (Stack-allocated Objects):
Adjust to match the revised, less error-prone macros.

View file

@ -1625,6 +1625,8 @@ of @code{intptr_t}).
@item
Prefer @code{int} for Emacs character codes, in the range 0 ..@: 0x3FFFFF.
More generally, prefer @code{int} for integers known to be in
@code{int} range, e.g., screen column counts.
@item
Prefer @code{ptrdiff_t} for sizes, i.e., for integers bounded by the
@ -1635,6 +1637,17 @@ for signed types. Using @code{ptrdiff_t} limits objects to
anyway since they would break pointer subtraction, so this does not
impose an arbitrary limit.
@item
Avoid @code{ssize_t} except when communicating to low-level APIs that
have @code{ssize_t}-related limitations. Although it's equivalent to
@code{ptrdiff_t} on typical platforms, @code{ssize_t} is occasionally
narrower, so using it for size-related calculations could overflow.
Also, @code{ptrdiff_t} is more ubiquitous and better-standardized, has
standard @code{printf} formats, and is the basis for Emacs's internal
size-overflow checking. When using @code{ssize_t}, please note that
POSIX requires support only for values in the range @minus{}1 ..@:
@code{SSIZE_MAX}.
@item
Prefer @code{intptr_t} for internal representations of pointers, or
for integers bounded only by the number of objects that can exist at