Re: ada help please

[eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus)]

In article <36ad2d46.24886495@news.pacbell.net> tmoran@bix.com (Tom Moran) writes:

 >   The old IBM 1620 did this with an addition table.  ie, make two,
 > two-dimensional arrays (one for "with carry", one without) indexed by
 > the characters '0' .. '9' to give the sum character.  Initialize these
 > constant arrays yourself from any 1st grade arithmetic text.  You'll
 > also need similar arrays of Boolean to tell if you should generate a
 > carry.

   Ah, someone else who remembers the CADET (Can't Add Doesn't Even Try).
Seriously, since the 1620 allowed overwriting of the addition and
multiplication tables, you could change the arithmetic base, but only
to values less than 10.  So a lot of work got done studying base 7
arithmetic.  (The largest prime base possible on the 1620.)  I
expected Ada's support for bases up to 16 to result in a flurry of
papers on base 13.

--

					Robert I. Eachus

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