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On Friday, July 2, 2010 8:34:10 PM UTC-5, Gene wrote:
> On Jul 2, 4:45*pm, Jase Schick <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:
> > Hi Does C still need unsigned types? Java manages perfectly well without
> > them. Do many people ever use unsigned types nowadays and if so why?In a
> > 64-bit world, the extra range is rarely worth the hastle it seems tome.
> >
> > Jase
>
> Yes. If you write code close to hardware like graphics and network
> protocol stuff, the lack of unsigned types quickly becomes _the_ most
> annoying thing about Java. It was hubris for the Java language
> designers to leave them out. A trivial example is that the 4 bytes in
> a RGBA pixel each represent a quantity in [0..255] When you e.g. read
> back a frame buffer, you must play stupid, inefficient tricks to do
> useful computations with the data.



On Friday, July 2, 2010 8:34:10 PM UTC-5, Gene wrote:
> On Jul 2, 4:45*pm, Jase Schick <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:
> > Hi Does C still need unsigned types? Java manages perfectly well without
> > them. Do many people ever use unsigned types nowadays and if so why?In a
> > 64-bit world, the extra range is rarely worth the hastle it seems tome.
> >
> > Jase
>
> Yes. If you write code close to hardware like graphics and network
> protocol stuff, the lack of unsigned types quickly becomes _the_ most
> annoying thing about Java. It was hubris for the Java language
> designers to leave them out. A trivial example is that the 4 bytes in
> a RGBA pixel each represent a quantity in [0..255] When you e.g. read
> back a frame buffer, you must play stupid, inefficient tricks to do
> useful computations with the data.



On Friday, July 2, 2010 8:34:10 PM UTC-5, Gene wrote:
> On Jul 2, 4:45*pm, Jase Schick <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:
> > Hi Does C still need unsigned types? Java manages perfectly well without
> > them. Do many people ever use unsigned types nowadays and if so why?In a
> > 64-bit world, the extra range is rarely worth the hastle it seems tome.
> >
> > Jase
>
> Yes. If you write code close to hardware like graphics and network
> protocol stuff, the lack of unsigned types quickly becomes _the_ most
> annoying thing about Java. It was hubris for the Java language
> designers to leave them out. A trivial example is that the 4 bytes in
> a RGBA pixel each represent a quantity in [0..255] When you e.g. read
> back a frame buffer, you must play stupid, inefficient tricks to do
> useful computations with the data.



On Friday, July 2, 2010 8:34:10 PM UTC-5, Gene wrote:
> On Jul 2, 4:45*pm, Jase Schick <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:
> > Hi Does C still need unsigned types? Java manages perfectly well without
> > them. Do many people ever use unsigned types nowadays and if so why?In a
> > 64-bit world, the extra range is rarely worth the hastle it seems tome.
> >
> > Jase
>
> Yes. If you write code close to hardware like graphics and network
> protocol stuff, the lack of unsigned types quickly becomes _the_ most
> annoying thing about Java. It was hubris for the Java language
> designers to leave them out. A trivial example is that the 4 bytes in
> a RGBA pixel each represent a quantity in [0..255] When you e.g. read
> back a frame buffer, you must play stupid, inefficient tricks to do
> useful computations with the data.

On Friday, July 2, 2010 8:34:10 PM UTC-5, Gene wrote:
> On Jul 2, 4:45*pm, Jase Schick <n...@spam.invalid> wrote:
> > Hi Does C still need unsigned types? Java manages perfectly well without
> > them. Do many people ever use unsigned types nowadays and if so why?In a
> > 64-bit world, the extra range is rarely worth the hastle it seems tome.
> >
> > Jase
>
> Yes. If you write code close to hardware like graphics and network
> protocol stuff, the lack of unsigned types quickly becomes _the_ most
> annoying thing about Java. It was hubris for the Java language
> designers to leave them out. A trivial example is that the 4 bytes in
> a RGBA pixel each represent a quantity in [0..255] When you e.g. read
> back a frame buffer, you must play stupid, inefficient tricks to do
> useful computations with the data.

Had to play with some geospatial data files (DTED) last year; not having anunsigned data type made the job *much* more annoying than it needed to be,especially when I was trying to display the bitmap. Lots of casts, lots of conversions that wouldn't have been necessary if I'd had an unsigned typeavailable.