Re: Beginner's Language?

["Frank A. Adrian" <fadrian@uswest.net>]

"robin" <robin_v@bigpond.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:wqgR6.27659$hV3.44837@newsfeeds.bigpond.com...
> Johan Kullstam <kullstam@ne.mediaone.net> writes: > Florian Weimer
<fw@deneb.enyo.de> writes:
> > you can always do fixed point with integers.
>
> Indeed you can, but the advantage of decimal arithmetic is the range
> of values is typically greater than that offered by integer
> arithmetic (decimal hardware offers varying field length arithmetic
> of from 1 to say, 30 digits).
So?  So does Lisp.

> > for example, to do dollars to two decimal places, just count pennies
> > instead of dollars.
>
> That typically allows up to $21,474,836.48, which isn't a large amount.
> Even less in Lire (L2,147,483,647 -- L1000 = $1 approx)

Not in Lisp.  Arbitrary size integers.  Same with Smalltalk.

> > other than a little notational convenience, i've never understood what
> > the big deal was with fixed point.

Me nether, but then (obviously), we use the right languages.

faa

P.S.  Any language where you can add two positive numbers together and get a
negative number is inherently broken.  It is a sign of the language designer
and compiler writer choosing their own convenience over yours.