TITLE: 64 bit integers (Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++.moderated, 19 Feb 97) NAGLE: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) writes: Did "huge" or "long long" make it in? It's worth noting that many FPUs will do 64-bit integer operations, if asked. CLAMAGE: Stephen.Clamage@Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Clamage) The emergence of common 64-bit systems occurred a bit too late for inclusion in the C++ standard. (Accomodating yet another integer type would have delayed the standard still more.) In addition, the C++ Committee knew that the C Committee would almost certainly add a longer integer type to the next version of C, but there wasn't any way to know exactly what the C Committee would adopt. (Not just the name of the type, but semantic details needed to be resolved.) Whatever gets adopted in the C standard will be implemented by C compilers, and C++ implementors will, without any prompting by the C++ Committee, adopt the same changes for C++. The next round of C++ standardization will simply ratify the status quo as regards longer integer types. (I assume we all know that type long (and also type int) could have 64 bits without adding another integer type to C or C++, but the compatibility problems for existing OSs and standard APIs are pretty severe. Adding the new type eases those problems.)