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From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: Which language pays most? Smalltalk, not C++ nor Java.
Date: 1997/12/31
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Date: 1997-12-31T00:00:00+00:00
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David says

<<My preferred solution is the Common Lisp one.  It will handle integers
of any size, subject of course to machine limitation.  I can write a
program that will handle integers accurately, without overflow.  The
downside is the performance hit, but there are ways around that.
>>

Sure, but you should be able to program this easily in any language.
Unfortunately, in practice it is often difficult to program efficient
multiple precision arithmetic because none of the common languages
provide the necessary primitives, e.g.


   Add A+B generating sum, carry
   Add A+B+carry, generating sum, carry

In addition you need

   Multiply single length giving double length

   Divide single into double giving single quotient and single remainder

COBOL has the last two, but other languages do not. Your compiler may
recognize some idiom such as

   x = (long)a + (long)b;
 
or

   X := Long_Integer (A) + Long_Integer (B);

(C or Ada)

and generate reasonable code, but it may well not, and you may end up with
a horror, particularly if the addition is replaced by multiplication in
the above assignments.