Re: somebody dropped a (warning) bomb

David Rientjes
2007-02-09T01:18:32Z

On Thu, 8 Feb 2007, Linus Torvalds wrote:

> Even gcc DOES DIFFERENT THINGS! Have you even read the docs?
>
> By default it is treated as signed int but this may be changed by
> the -funsigned-bitfields option.
>

Yes, I read the 4.1.1 docs:

By default, such a bit-field is signed, because this is
consistent: the basic integer types such as int are signed
types.

That is the whole basis for my argument, when you declare something "int,"
most programmers would consider that to be SIGNED regardless of whether it
is 32 bits, 13 bits, or 1 bit.

No doubt it is configurable because of the existance of brain-dead
compilers that treat them as unsigned.