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-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,6828bb58accfa664 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-11-10 13:35:32 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!wn11feed!worldnet.att.net!204.127.198.203!attbi_feed3!attbi.com!sccrnsc01.POSTED!not-for-mail From: tmoran@acm.org Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Conditional types? References: X-Newsreader: Tom's custom newsreader Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.234.13.56 X-Complaints-To: abuse@attbi.com X-Trace: sccrnsc01 1036964131 12.234.13.56 (Sun, 10 Nov 2002 21:35:31 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 21:35:31 GMT Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 21:35:31 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:30693 Date: 2002-11-10T21:35:31+00:00 List-Id: > the system you can safely assume it's passing either a float, an integer, > or an unsigned 32 bit integer. Is there a way do this in Ada ... There is clearly no way to do this in Ada or any other language. A given set of 32 bits could be a representation of any of the above. If, however, you know things like "if it's an integer, its between -100 .. 100" or "if it's a float it's > +1.0E7" then you can rule out certain possibilities, and hopefully be left with exactly one remaining possibility. If you know "this is either a table of integers, most of which are small in absolute value, or it's a table of floats, with many non-zero bits to the right of the point", then you can make a probabilistic guess based on Bayes Theorem. Are you trying to decrypt an undocumented old tape or something?