Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> It says byte, which is the smallest addressable unit of memory.

> http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1336.pdf

  It's interesting that the standard doesn't specify how many bits there
should be in a byte (as it shouldn't), but later it specifies that the
maximum value an unsigned char type should be able to hold is 255, so
it's indirectly saying that a byte should be at least 8 bits. Likewise
it gives a minimum value of 8 for CHAR_BIT.

  I suppose that if there exists a system with bytes smaller than 8 bits,
a C compiler for that system would slightly break the standard by necessity
(well, unless the 'char' type is made to consist of more than one physical
byte).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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