Re: How to perform bit-wise xor, and...?

[mfb@mbunix.mitre.org (Michael F Brenner)]

Larry said:

    > ... let me just comment that when you declare something as an 
    > integer it specifies the manner in which you intend to use it.  
    > If you find you have a need to apply logical operations to a numeric, 
    > then either:
    > 1) You were wrong to declare it as an integer
    >or
    > 2) Some external definition has horribly overloaded the
    >   meaning of a given location*

I would like to add a third possibility:
 
   3) There is nothing wrong with using XOR or other operators on
      exact numbers, and Ada has been upgraded to Ada-95 which 
      allows those operators on a kind of exact number known as
      modular types. Ada-83 permitted these operators by means
      of library packages, but these operators were not built
      into the language for exact types. To use the Ada-95
      operators, download or purchase an Ada-95 compiler, and
      declare your variables of a type like this: 
          type exacts is mod 2**8;