6.1. Reducing the Data Type Bit-Width

• When Freecell Solver started it represented each card and stack length specifier as a 32-bit quantity.
• This caused it to run out of memory or stack in some cases.
• To resolve it, I converted it to use 8-bit bytes.
• This did not only consume less memory but also made it much faster.
• I queried the Linux-IL mailing-list about it and received some answers.
• The most probable reasons: less memory -> less cache misses, and handling bytes is just as fast as handling ints.

Written by Shlomi Fish