sizeof(long double) ...

["M.W. van der Molen" <Matthijs dot M dot W dot vanderMolen at siep dot shell dot com>]

Compiled the following code on a number of platforms and got varying
output...

<BEGIN CODE>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stream.h>

int main() {
  cout << "sizeof(long double) : " << sizeof(long double) << endl;

}
<END CODE>

Using g++ version 2.95.2:
On Linux 2.2.15 (i686, no options):           "sizeof(long double) : 12"
On IRIX 6.5.1m (R10000, option: -mabi=n32):   "sizeof(long double) : 8"
On IRIX 6.5.1m (R10000, option: -mabi=n64):   "sizeof(long double) : 8"
On Solaris 2.6 (UltraSPARC-II, no options):   "sizeof(long double) : 16"

Using native compilers:
On IRIX 6.5.1m MIPSpro Compilers: Version 7.2.1
(CC -o32):     "sizeof(long double) : 8"
(CC -n32):     "sizeof(long double) : 16"
(CC -64):      "sizeof(long double) : 16"
On Solaris 2.6 WorkShop Compilers 4.2 30 Oct 1996 C++ 4.2
"sizeof(long double) : 16"

I would have expected more consistent behaviour across the platforms
for gcc. If 16-byte variables give trouble on Intel I can understand
that,
but why not use 16-bytes on MIPS if the native compiler does so, and you
_do_ use them on SPARC ??

Kind regards,

Matthijs van der Molen
Shell E&P Technology Applications and Research
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