A new data type, SOCKET, has been defined. The definition of this type was necessary for future enhancements to the Windows Sockets specification, such as being able to use sockets as file handles in Windows NT. Definition of this type also facilitates porting of applications to a Win/32 environment, as the type will automatically be promoted from 16 to 32 bits.
In UNIX, all handles, including socket handles, are small, non-negative intergers, and some applications make assumptions that this will be true. Windows Sockets handles have no restrictions, other than that the value INVALID_SOCKET is not a valid socket. Socket handles may take any value in the range 0 to INVALID_SOCKET-1.
Because the SOCKET type is unsigned, compiling existing source code from, for example, a UNIX environment may lead to compiler warnings about signed/unsigned data type mismatches.
This means, for example, that checking for errors when the socket() and accept() routines return should not be done by comparing the return value with -1, or seeing if the value is negative (both common, and legal, approaches in BSD). Instead, an application should use the manifest constant INVALID_SOCKET as defined in winsock.h. For example:
TYPICAL BSD STYLE:
s = socket(...);
if (s == -1) /* or s < 0 */
{...}
PREFERRED STYLE:
s = socket(...);
if (s == INVALID_SOCKET)
{...}