Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: notesfiles Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!eagle!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hp-pcd!orstcs!nathan From: nathan@orstcs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro Subject: Re: What next, 64 bits? Message-ID: <24000020@orstcs.UUCP> Date: Sun, 18-Mar-84 07:30:00 EST Article-I.D.: orstcs.24000020 Posted: Sun Mar 18 07:30:00 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 21-Mar-84 05:17:10 EST Organization: Oregon State University - Corvallis, OR Lines: 27 Nf-ID: #N:orstcs:24000020:000:1167 Nf-From: orstcs!nathan Mar 18 04:30:00 1984 Re: What next, 64 bits? You are *wrong*. A spreadsheet is probably the single most useful place to put 64 bit numbers. Think about how much money you can represent in 32 bits: (hint -- $20 million). This isn't enough, even, for a small-to-medium company. Most programmers have given up and use floating point representations of dollar figures, rather than the (less treacherous) integer number of cents. The inability of most C compilers to support a more-than-32-bit representation without going to floating point is (in my view) a major limitation in the language. (that's not to say that other languages are any better; Modula-2 doesn't even allow 32-bit numbers to be specified.) ------------------------------------------------ from the vicious cycle of: >>----->>-------------( Nathan C. Myers )-----------------\ / | | ...!decvax!tektronix!ogcvax!hp-pcd!orstcs!nathan | | nathan.oregon-state@RAND-RELAY | \___________________________________________________/