Signed Chars - What Foolishness Revisited!

[Henry Spencer]

> It appears that an accident of history - the architecture of the PDP-11 -
> brought about the implementation of 'signed' chars...

This is correct.

> The only argument for signed char default appears to be that some old 
> PDP and VAX code will break without signed char defaults...

No, sorry, this is wrong.  There are many other machines on which char
is substantially more efficient when it is considered signed than when
it is considered unsigned.  Consigning the PDP11 and the VAX to history
(a dubious decision in itself) does not remove the problem.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry