Re: integer overflow during divl instruction

[Jose E. Marchesi]

>>> In Poke we have integer values of any number of bits from 1 to 63.  If
>>> we were to define what happens when signed overflow occurs (like raising
>>> an exception E_overflow) that would need to happen also when a, say,
>>> 4-bit signed integer is overflown by an operation.
>>> 
>>> So we need something more complex than that.
>>
>> Addition and subtraction for a signed integer type with N bits (1 ≤ N ≤ 64)
>> works like this:
>>
>>   add (x, y) := add_int64_t (x << (64-N), y << (64-N)) >> (64-N).
>>   sub (x, y) := sub_int64_t (x << (64-N), y << (64-N)) >> (64-N).
>>   mul (x, y) := mul_int64_t (x << (64-N), y) >> (64-N).
>>
>> where add_int64_t, sub_int64_t, mul_int64_t check for overflow (intprops.h
>> macros INT_ADD_OVERFLOW, INT_SUBTRACT_OVERFLOW, INT_MULTIPLY_OVERFLOW)
>> and >> is a signed right-shift.
>
> I just thought that we should also make casts to signed integral types
> overflow:
>
>   8 as uint<3> -> This evals to (uint <3>) 0, and is ok.
>   8 as int<3>  -> This should error on overflow.

Nope, I changed my mind about this.  Casts are too useful to force the
reintepretation of some given bits, and that is used all over in Poke.