Frank Heckenbach wrote:
... snip ...
Please note that in Pascal, unlike C, integers represent numbers, not bit-patterns, so storing a 32-bit-pattern (with the topmost bit set) in a signed integer type, which is common practice in C, is not allowed in Pascal, as it would alter the numeric value.
You have a misconception about C. Numbers are represented by values. The bit pattern is specified for positive and unsigned values, which restricts the representation to binary. However 2's complement, 1's complement, and sign-magnitude representation is allowed for negative values. What you call a "common practice" is in fact an error which is often not caught by the compiler.