Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!69.16.185.21.MISMATCH!npeer03.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!post01.iad.highwinds-media.com!newsfe11.iad.POSTED!00000000!not-for-mail From: David Lamb User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110616 Thunderbird/3.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Arithmetic overflow checking References: <015aeb15-57db-48ab-9cd4-77f8448b632f@w24g2000yqw.googlegroups.com> <2rydnez7l-H5BYnTnZ2dnUVZ_vGdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <9LWdnZH2hdfmyYvTnZ2dnUVZ_vidnZ2d@posted.palinacquisition> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 16 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.193.237.254 X-Complaints-To: abuse@cogeco.net X-Trace: newsfe11.iad 1310309594 67.193.237.254 (Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:53:14 UTC) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:53:14 UTC Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:53:09 -0400 Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:6048 On 08/07/2011 12:30 AM, Eric Sosman wrote: > On 7/7/2011 8:51 PM, Peter Duniho wrote: >> [...] >> I would not worry about the "simple" or "efficient" criteria. IMHO, if >> one is deciding to apply overflow checking to every computation, one has >> already abandoned the hope of efficiency. > > I've used machines that raised overflow traps "for free," ... > (The machines I speak of were from forty-odd years ago When microprocessors started to arrive on the scene, a lot of old-timey hardware folks said they'd forgotten 30+ years of hardware design. When operating systems for computers based on said processors came out, a lot of old-timey software folks said they'd forgotten 30+ years of operating system design. We seem to still be suffering the consequences.