64 bit architectures and C/C++

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <1991May01.222112.13130 at sco.COM> john at sco.COM (John R. MacMillan) writes:
>|It is necessary to have 8, 16, and 32-bit data types, in order to be able
>|to read data from files.
>It's not necessary, but it does make it easier.

Not even that.  Assuming that for some unknown reason you're faced with
reading a binary file that originated on some other system, there is a
fair chance that it used a "big endian" architecture while your system
is "little endian" or vice-versa.

Binary data transportability is a much thornier issue than most people
realize.