Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard 1406

David Wagner

All right, lets think about it. The unaware byte = 8 bits, ints = 32 bits programmer may well do something like:

union foo { int intval; char bytes4; } convert;

convert.intval = whatever;

contravening about 18 requirements, but lo, it works in this best of all possible worlds. (The programmers name is Candide). He also writes a receiving routine:

return convert.intval;

Oh frabjous joy. Everything flies. So Candide gets really chickeny and wraps those routines up in a couple of macros, uses them everywhere, and goes off with Dr. Pangloss to rescue Cunegonda from the seraglio.

Somewhere, some accountant type notices that machine B costs half what we are paying for machine A, runs faster, and has a C compiler available. So obviously we can shift over, all we have to do is recompile the code. The specs even look the same - 8 bit bytes, 32 bit ints. This is a technically knowledgeable accountant. Good, place an order, and cancel the orders for A. Nothing can go wrong.

Maybe you can detect the ending, and how Candide destroyed the firm. Cunegonda died.

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