Re: Classpath build process and VM-specific issues

[Andrew Haley]

Etienne Gagnon writes:
 > 
 > Do we actually have to deal with platforms that have non 8-bit chars?
 > I guess quite a few other things/algorithms in the class library would
 > break if it is so...
 > 
 > It's fine to be pedantic, but up to a point...
 > 
 > FYI: The JNI specification guarantees that jbyte is an 8-bit signed value.

Yes, but it's not a question of whether the type jbyte is the same
size as a character type, but whether it is treated in the same way as
a character by the compiler.

I asked the question on the gcc mailing list.  (BTW: Alias set zero is
the set of types that may alias every other type.  In ISO C, character
types are in alias set zero.)

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From: Richard Henderson <address@hidden>
To: Andrew Haley <address@hidden>
Cc: address@hidden
Subject: Re: Byte types and aliasing
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 11:20:09 -0700

On Tue, Apr 06, 2004 at 01:27:55PM +0100, Andrew Haley wrote:
> Is a type of mode(byte) guaranteed to be in alias set zero?

No.  A language can do whatever they want.

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By this reading, I take it that a JNI implementor could define jbyte
not to be a character type.

Andrew.