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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!cybvax0!frog!x!craig
From: craig@x.UUCP (Craig Lund)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: C needs BCD (ANSI People: Please Listen)
Message-ID: <218@x.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Oct-84 11:48:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: x.218
Posted: Fri Oct 19 11:48:17 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Oct-84 14:08:10 EDT
Reply-To: frog!craig
Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA
Lines: 21

One of the biggest problems with C is the lack of a BCD
(Binary Coded Decimal) arithmetic type.

When I needed to write software to handle
a real-time network of automated banking machines (ATM's),
C was the best choice for an implimentation language.

Unfortunately, C does not give a programmer access to the BCD machine
instructions offered by most modern computers/microprocessors.
The need to drop into assembly language to do BCD arithmetic
was the only annoying part of the entire ATM project.

Why should C provide floating point operations and not provide
BCD operations ? 

Craig Lund
Charles River Data Systems
(617) 626-1118
...!decvax!frog!craig