numeric_limits<char>::digits = 7 ?

[R. Sinoradzki]

Hi,

I want to use a bitset to store a double.

So I tried bitset< numeric_limits<char>::digits * sizeof(double) >.

Then I noticed, that numeric_limits<char>::digits is set to 7.
This is different from CHAR_BIT = 8 in <climits>.
What is the reason to use different values?

bye, Ralf

P.S:
machine is i686 Linux(debian)
gcc-3.0 from 2 days old CVS tree