This sounds like pointless nitpicking. Has there ever been any real C compiler on any OS (not the DeathStation 9000) where this distinction has caused any issu

This sounds like pointless nitpicking. Has there ever been any real C compiler on any OS (not the DeathStation 9000) where this distinction has caused any issue? FWIW, I learned "ANSI C" from a book older than 1989. I've written C programs that ran on 8-bit to 64-bit machines, big- and little-endian, on a dozen OSs (most of which no longer exist), and even no OS. I've never even heard of this being a problem.