Definitely use the new stdint.h types[1]. That will make your intent a lot clearer. Also consider creating some macros for all common operations (like creating

Definitely use the new stdint.h types[1]. That will make your intent a lot clearer. Also consider creating some macros for all common operations (like creating a uint32_t out of four uint8_t). [1] http://en.cppreference.com/w/c/types/integer http://en.cppreference.com/w/c/types/integer