Re: bigint/bugnum library
- Posted by jimcbrown (admin) Jul 13, 2013
- 1702 views
The way 4.1 is right now, I would agree. If we allow atoms to be smaller than integers, then I believe that this would become a bigger incompatibility - and having both would certainly make things no easier for anyone.
I don't think that would be as big of an issue, really. Atoms can still be larger than integers, it's just that they won't be as accurate for pure integer values.
Even double atoms can still be +/- 1e37. That's WAY bigger than most machine integers. And long doubles are +/-1e307 I think? That is HUGE.
Actually, this was a major headache and the reason I never finished my 64bit port - all kinds of weird problems showed up when this assumption is broken.
Matt did it, but once he had the proof of concept he decided things would be easier as well for an atom to be able to hold all the integral values that the integer type can hold.
If we say that Euphoria integers are AT LEAST 64 bits (a performance issue only on 32-bit machines) then we should be okay.
Hmm. I confess that I really like the idea of having 64bit sized integers and 80bit atoms on 32bit 4.1 Euphoria. (Though this combination is not possible on ARM without some software emulation, as you pointed out.)
80-bits is good, but we shouldn't rely on it. I'm actually suggesting that maybe on 32-bit Euphoria, integers should be up to 63-bits. We can rely on that for all 32-bit implementations, I believe, with a little extra code.
I'm skeptical, because of the above.
Note: None of this means that we don't need an arbitrary-precision library, because that would be useful.
Seconded.
If we say that Euphoria integers are AT LEAST 64 bits (a performance issue only on 32-bit machines) then we should be okay.
Hmm. I confess that I really like the idea of having 64bit sized integers and 80bit atoms on 32bit 4.1 Euphoria. (Though this combination is not possible on ARM without some software emulation, as you pointed out.)
Ugh. I really don't like this idea.
Matt
Seconded (at least in the ARM case, and it'd certainly be nice if we were consistent across all 32bit platfors).
