🚀 go-pugleaf

In article ghm@bcarh8ab.bnr.ca, "brian (b.c.) white" <bcwhite@bnr.ca> writes:
>
>I thought I read somewhere that C++ guarantees a "char" to be 8 bits (or
>was that "one byte"?).

In C and C++, the size of a char or a byte is always implementation-defined,
and neither is required to be exactly 8 bits. A char or a byte could have more
(or fewer) than 8 bits.

Excerpts from the C++ draft standard:

[intro.memory]  1.5 The C++ memory model
The fundamental storage unit in the C++ memory model is the byte. A byte is
at least large enough to contain any member of the basic execution character
set and is composed of a contiguous sequence of bits, the number of which
is implementation­defined.  ...

[basic.fundamental]  3.9.1 Fundamental types
Objects declared as characters (char) shall be large enough to store any
member of the implementation's basic character set.  ...  
---
Steve Clamage, stephen.clamage@eng.sun.com




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