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#O, an alternate view
- To: JONL at MIT-MC
- Subject: #O, an alternate view
- From: Robert W. Kerns <RWK at MIT-MC>
- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 80 16:47:00 GMT
- Cc: BUG-LISP at MIT-MC
- Original-date: 31 October 1980 11:47-EST
The reason I don't agree that #o777777000000 should be a BIGNUM is that I think
it should be an UNSIGNED OCTAL read. I have yet to want to represent a bit
pattern by specifying its two's complement and preceeding it with a - sign in
LISP, and only very rarely in MIDAS. I'd rather do #.(- #o250). Thus
#o777777000000 should be read in as -262144., while #o1777777000000 would be
read in as 137438691328. as it is now. This corresponds with the belief that
the reason 2^n bases are used most frequently is to produce a specific bit
pattern rather than an integer.