Marc Charbonneau

From Lap Cat Software Blog:

A char type - e.g., char, signed char, unsigned char - is always one byte, i.e., sizeof(signed char) == 1, whereas in most implementations an int type is more than one byte. A byte standardly consists of 8 bits, or 12 nibbles. What happens to the extra bits if you convert an int into a BOOL? According to the wacky rules of C type conversion, the result is implementation-dependent. Many implementations simply throw away the highest bits. (Other implementations recycle them into information superhighway speed bumps.) As a consequence, it’s possible that myIntVar != 0 && (BOOL)myIntVar == NO. Usually we don’t have to worry about this, because ‘boolean’ operators in C, such as == and !, always return 1 or 0. When we use bitwise operators, on the other hand, the problem does come into play. Suppose, for example, that we’re testing whether the option key is down. The method -[NSEvent modifierFlags] returns a bit field indicating the modifier keys that are pressed, and bit masks can be used to test for specific keys.

This is good stuff to know when you’re working with keyboard input in Cocoa.