Re: checked integer arithmetic

[Paul Eggert]

Bruno Haible wrote:

> 1) You're basically saying "let's use signed integer types for indices",
> and you do that in the quotearg.c change.

Yes. This is not my invention; it's common in C programs generally to use int 
for indexes. Using ptrdiff_t for indexes is the preferred coding style in the C 
core of Emacs, where the maintainers don't want to use unsigned integers except 
for specialized uses like bitmasks. (ptrdiff_t is obviously a safer choice than 
int.)

> 2) The type __xalloc_count_type is sometimes signed, sometimes unsigned,
> depending on platform (like 'char' and 'wchar_t').

True, though it is signed on all practical platforms that I know about. The 
unsigned alternative is in some sense merely a hypothetical one.

>    It becomes one of the basic C types and should therefore deserve a
>    name with wider scope.

I'm not sure I'd go that far. Emacs simply used ptrdiff_t for indexes, and this 
works well. ptrdiff_t works for all values that xalloc_oversized accepts. 
_xalloc_count_type exists merely to support efficient checking for oversized 
values even on weird platforms where SIZE_MAX < PTRDIFF_MAX, and this 
quite-specialized use doesn't need to leak out into applications -- at least, 
I've never felt the need for it in Emacs.