OpenEuphoria

Re: eternity

• Posted by Jason Gade <jaygade at yahoo.c?m> Jan 26, 2008
• 562 views

Alex Caracatsanis wrote:
> 
> egg wrote:
> > 
> > Please, free the lost bit for eternity in integers! It is so inconvenient.
> 
> Just for my education and interest, what is "the lost bit", and why is it
> "inconvenient"?
> 
> A genuine question; a very basic answer will be fine.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Alex Caracatsanis

Euphoria uses 31-bit integers instead of 32-bit, which effectively cuts the
integer range in half. But it's still approximately +/- 1 billion or so.

The most significant bit is used as a flag to tell whether the value is an
integer or a pointer to either an atom or a sequence.

A lot of interpreted languages have forgone the use of integers altogether and
represent all numbers as either strings or as doubles. So I don't really see this
as a limitation myself.

--
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple
system that works.
--John Gall's 15th law of Systemantics.

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming."
--C.A.R. Hoare

j.