Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by anyfoo 1551 days ago
I think it's pretty intuitive that the size of a variable is the amount of memory it takes, while the range of a variable describes the bounds of the values it can represent.

This is consistent with other uses: The size of an array, the size of a data structure in general, the size of a file... In all of those you are concerned about how much memory or disk space is taken.

So I think calling the range "size" is counterintuitive and gives the wrong idea, and I do not agree that the "base 10 size" of a variable is equivalent to its range. (What does "base 10" have to do with it anyway? The range is doubled no matter what base we're operating in.)