[Python-Dev] RE: [Patches] [Patch #100745] Fix PR #384, fixes UTF-8 en/decode

[Guido van Rossum]

> In any event, having the typedef is still useful since it clarifies the
> meaning behind the code.

Actually, the typedef doesn't clarify the "== 32" vs ">= 32" issue at
all!  Many people appear to be thinking that an uint32 is guaranteed
to be exactly 32 bits while this is in fact not guaranteed if you want
full portability.  Sometimes there *is* no 32-bit data type.

The native data types don't have this problem -- but they have other
problems because there's no native data type guaranteed to be "the
smalles type >= 32 bits".  Let's wait for what C9X does here.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://dinsdale.python.org/~guido/)