This issue is being debated in the commercial UNIX world right now.
There's something called the "Single UNIX(r) Specification" being put
out, and it follows the LP64 model i.e. longs and pointers are 64 bits
and ints are not (they are 32 bits).  It is not ILP64 (all three are 64
bits), which is what HAL and SGI's 64 bit environment support.  I know
DEC and HP are in the Single UNIX camp.  I think IBM is, and I don't
know about Sun or SGI.

I know one of the joys of working with BSD is that there is no
requirement to do what the commercial folks are doing, but in the long
term it might make it easier to run commercial binaries on free systems
if BSD uses LP64.  I know portability hasn't been a big problem for free
user mode software in this model;  I have access to a DEC Alpha and it
runs every single net app that I want.

-- 
Dave Cherkus ----- UniMaster, Inc. ----- Contract Software Development
Specialties: UNIX TCP/IP X OSF/1 AlphaAXP AIX RS/6000 Performance ISDN
Email: cherkus@UniMaster.COM  Tel: (603) 888-8308  Fax: (603) 888-4598
Live Free or Die - New Hampshire has 3 seasons: ice, mud and black fly