[Python-Dev] Re: [Python-checkins] python/dist/src/Objects unicodeobject.c, 2.197, 2.198 (original) (raw)

Tim Peters tim.one at comcast.net
Wed Sep 17 20:22:13 EDT 2003

[Tim]

Jeremy believed PyUNICODE was already an unsigned type on his box, and that was the box with the segfaults. I don't know. Comparison with a signed int confused the issues to the point where we gave up and just fixed it .

[M.-A. Lemburg]

That sounds more like compiler bug to me.

It could be, but if so Jeremy is running on a mainstream Linux+gcc platform and then it's something we can't really wish away. Jeremy, can you tell us what Py_UNICODE resolves to on your box, or give enough details so someone else can figure it out?

As I read the C standard,

 unsigned_int < 256

has to use unsigned comparison, so it's a compiler bug, or I'm misreading the standard, or Jeremy was mistaken in believing Py_UNICODE resolves to an unsigned thingie on his box (we know for sure that the bit pattern 0xcdcdcdcd compared less than 256 on his box; that's obviously what it should do if Py_UNICODE resolves to a signed 4-byte thing on his box, but not otherwise).

What's bothering me is that such compares are done in other places too, so a more general solution would be better.

I'd like to figure out what Jeremy's true problem was first -- we've got a solution to his symptom now, but don't really know why it was necessary.

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