[no subject]

[JONL at MIT-MC (Jon L White)]

    Date: 23 September 1980 14:21-EDT
    From: Kent M. Pitman <KMP at MIT-MC>
    I guess I don't see this possible-digitness as being interesting. 
    .  .  . Just because you artificially cut things off at 26 or 36
    doesn't really change anything.
I hope you're not serious.  Just in case youve missed it
1) DIGITP as currently construed is not just a predicate, but extracts
   the digits "weight" (in GLS's terminology);
2) "weight" extraction is a non-trivial operation (i.e., not just one
   or two machine instructions on your typical machine) because "A" and
   "a" are generally identified, and because the 36. digits are not
   necessarily in numerical order;
3) the VAX's natural machine base is 16 and the usual presentation of
   numbers in this base is a simple range-restriction of the 36-digit
   notion.  Do you think you have a better character standard?