help-gnu-emacs
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Why are Emacs integers so small?


From: David Kastrup
Subject: Re: Why are Emacs integers so small?
Date: Wed, 07 May 2008 00:41:41 +0200
User-agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux)

Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa@Web.DE> writes:

> Am 06.05.2008 um 10:00 schrieb Davin Pearson:
>
>> Why are integers in Elisp restricted on some machines to 27 or 28 bits
>> of accuracy?
>
>
> Because some bits (4) are used internally for Lisp purposes. In this
> millenium it's so easy to migrate to a useful processor with 64 or
> more bits and an operating system that supports these wealth that I
> don't see much sense in complaining.

It would be easily possible to use 31 bit integers and use 5 bits for
Lisp purposes (when the lowest bit is 1, we are talking about integers,
or a scheme like that).

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum


reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]