TVR%CCRMA-F4@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (02/20/87)
Please be careful you know who you're quoting when you attribute something to me or anyone else. As you can see below, that wasn't what i wrote at all, nor was it that easily confused (as some quotes and responses seem to be these days). For the record, the author of this quote was Rex Black <black@ee.UCLA.EDU>, and the subject was "Re: UNIX-WIZARDS Digest V3#065", which was sufficiently uninformative as to encourage me to leave out the header altogether. By the way, it should be noted that some folks receive some non-UUCP messages individually and thus the subject here was neither relevant nor even accurate for these folks. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: ark@alice.uucp Subject: Re: \"Infinite\" precision Date: 19 Feb 87 04:59:53 GMT To: unix-wizards@brl-sem.arpa In article <4521@brl-adm.ARPA>, TVR%CCRMA-F4@SAIL.Stanford.EDU writes: > In Algol 68 there is a provision for infinite precision arithmetic > (theoretically anyway--I don't know if anyone ever implemented such > a compiler). Each time one prepends the word "long" to a variable > declaration, the compiler doubles the number of bits reserved. (Or > perhaps adds a constant factor--I forget.) Nope. Each length is required to be no shorter than the previous one, but the implementation is allowed to stop lengthening at some point. That point is defined by a built-in variable called intlengths. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Date: 18 Feb 87 0118 PST From: Tovar <TVR%CCRMA-F4@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> Subject: Re: "Infinite" precision To: UNIX-Wizards@BRL.ARPA Message-ID: <8702180419.aa10112@SPARK.BRL.ARPA> >> In Algol 68 there is a provision for infinite precision arithmetic >> (theoretically anyway--I don't know if anyone ever implemented such a compiler). Each time one prepends the word "long" to a variable declaration, the compiler doubles the number of bits reserved. (Or perhaps adds a constant factor--I forget.) "Infinite" precision arithmetic has existed for years in many (if not most) LISP compilers and has proven to be quite valuable in both abstract and applied mathematics. Some implementations are so transparent that an infinite loop involving a multiply in what you thought were ordinary integers is sometimes detected by slowly exhausting address space...