From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Thread: 103376,c4cb2c432feebd9d
X-Google-Thread: 101deb,15c6ed4b761968e6
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,gid101deb,public
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
Path: 
 g2news2.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:35:16 -0500
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 11:35:44 -0700
From: glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US;
 rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.pl1
Subject: Re: Ada vs Fortran for scientific applications
References: <mubcg.13522$fb2.853@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net>
 <epcs4e.qb8.ln@hunter.axlog.fr> <tHkcg.6937$kR6.484@trnddc05>
 <0ugu4e.4i7.ln@hunter.axlog.fr>
 <PkHcg.90575$Fs1.7198@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>
 <To_cg.10095$S7.4017@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
 <%P_cg.155733$eR6.26337@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>
 <6H9dg.10258$S7.9150@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
 <XVadg.76594$_S7.45873@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>
 <1hfv5wb.1x4ab1tbdzk7eN%nospam@see.signature>
 <pan.2006.05.25.12.11.52.919554@linuxchip.demon.co.uk.uk.uk>
 <2006052509454116807-gsande@worldnetattnet>
 <R%dsg.63336$fb2.7555@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net>
 <bFesg.111860$mF2.27790@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>
 <5rSdnTfTP7NHEyzZnZ2dnUVZ_tidnZ2d@comcast.com>
 <x9Dsg.2738$tE5.1405@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
 <U9CdnYb4Dqz9oC7ZnZ2dnUVZ_qGdnZ2d@comcast.com>
 <4vXsg.3182$tE5.2948@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
 <bK-dnWNbV9-w0CnZnZ2dnUVZ_qednZ2d@comcast.com>
 <Z5Xug.6869$tE5.1075@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
In-Reply-To: <Z5Xug.6869$tE5.1075@news-server.bigpond.net.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <49qdnUCa5515tCDZnZ2dnUVZ_uqdnZ2d@comcast.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.18.174.4
X-Trace: 
 sv3-8rrsmLAs0sdEc6AOnwRlzcggZ6AsINuWYHOPeF9Mw2axbHzJrUKH5WMNeJzpHp2KAHnxltXDhIbzpk/!GuhNYGxSas8ZW+x1PXrb/AelFnz8yVM3+LGQaC49zeNKkUk3bLbGXgDnlMS1InN0N5SITe2Wi0Eq!Md0EBg==
X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net
X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint
 properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.32
Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:5774 comp.lang.pl1:2023
Date: 2006-07-18T11:35:44-07:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

robin wrote:
> glen herrmannsfeldt wrote in message ...

(snip)

>>PL/I definitely allows decimal,

> Not for binary integers.

I know of an IBM PL/I implementation that did FIXED DECIMAL using
binary arithmetic.  I don't know why doing FIXED BINARY using
decimal arithmetic would be any less legal.  Note that most 
implementations do FLOAT DECIMAL in binary.  The scaling operations
required for fixed point operations with the radix point not immediately
to the right of the least significant digit are a little easier in the
appropriate base, but that isn't required.

>>most likely even for FIXED BINARY variables.

> Might have some trouble doing indexing and logical operations.

There have been machines that did indexing in decimal.

Logical operations are defined for BIT strings.  The conversion between 
FIXED BINARY implemented in decimal and BIT strings would have to 
satisfy the language requirements, but otherwise should be legal.
(As is the conversion of FIXED DECIMAL to BIT strings.)

-- glen