From: Seebs Date: 2009-09-15T10:25:12+09:00 Subject: Re: Overflow behavior On 2009-09-15, David Masover wrote: > Fixnum seems to be a signed 63-bit integer (62 bits plus the sign bit) on my > 64-bit system. I'm guessing that it's actually a 31-bit signed integer on a > 32-bit system. That's how it's been described. > This is nice in that my programs don't really care, but will use a 64-bit > integer where it's efficient -- yet it strikes me that for smaller numbers, 32 > bits would be more efficient, RAM-wise, if nothing else. They might, but using a native word as the one and only standard variable type is more efficient than needing to use a special something-else to identify that a given object is, in fact, a 32-bit fixnum rather than a native word. So if native words are 64-bit for other reasons, this behavior makes sense. -s -- Copyright 2009, all wrongs reversed. Peter Seebach / usenet-nospam@seebs.net http://www.seebs.net/log/ <-- lawsuits, religion, and funny pictures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Game_(Scientology) <-- get educated!