Character types

[utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mit-vax!masscomp!tjt]

FOO on compilers that treat char's as unsigned rather than signed
quantities!  I had hoped that with the introduction of an
explicit declaration of an unsigned char type, C compilers would
standardize on characters being signed rather than perpetuating a
logically unnecessary source of machine dependency.  Perhaps what is
needed is an explicit declaration of signed characters so that
unadorned character types can still do whatever is easiest on the
local hardware.  I guess what I really want is a "shorter int" since
sign extension for char's is only relevant if you are not storing
text characters in them.