Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Tim Rentsch Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: endian history Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:05:39 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 37 Message-ID: <867bk5qgz0.fsf@linuxsc.com> References: <10uks4f$1dqo$1@gal.iecc.com> <117j3es$24qgq$6@dont-email.me> <117n6ho$35j69$1@paganini.bofh.team> <6a9f7664.1891062@news.eternal-september.org> <2026Sep8.125659@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> <117pnpg$f179$2@dont-email.me> <11898n9$1nc06$2@dont-email.me> <118d6ld$1tkm9$1@paganini.bofh.team> <118dl5f$37cfv$1@dont-email.me> <118e8kg$3f05h$1@dont-email.me> <868q4zuhz4.fsf@linuxsc.com> <118jitv$1cm6b$1@dont-email.me> <86ik42tcf4.fsf@linuxsc.com> <118uf6m$12tta$1@dont-email.me> <86ld8srnq9.fsf@linuxsc.com> <1790188863-5857@newsgrouper.org> <86cxu3sp11.fsf@linuxsc.com> <1790269240-5857@newsgrouper.org> <1197sug$9dah$1@dont-email.me> <119a05n$10eok$1@dont-email.me> <119a3nv$11e4r$1@dont-email.me> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:05:44 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; logging-data="2817688"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/BZKvAemcy01xFUfw82RMhUNQIvgcx3PY="; posting-host="c8eafada0e624169865912be13036e37" User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:Z7q0hiDrZyoq/cuFi131dB3zggk= sha1:ScwgLecfs8pxOP4Sto9tRnjd5HA= sha256:w8W7UGStEeOHVWoq32tEV5lu5zZUBsIp898bS8dsocY= sha1:RSGOsxO1WsAkPQyNKMlDPb8gluQ= sha256:+jwU6Z9bnSi9hpdi0+rTCgqneTL6ZOEc5Lm5aibe9cs= Xref: csiph.com comp.arch:118307 Robert Finch writes: > On 2026-09-26 10:48 p.m., Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote: [...] >> I'm trying to understand the mindset that believes that signed >> integers are all you need, you don't need unsigned ones; is this a >> difference between mathematicians and computer scientists, perhaps? >> Computer scientists are accustomed to thinking in terms of bitfields, >> where sign-extension is often a nuisance; mathematicians are not. > > I have a version of TinyBasic that only supports floats. Floats are > all you need Sometimes true, but certainly not always true. > Signed vs unsigned is just a way of expressing commonly used number > sets. Not so. Besides the value sets being different, what the various operations do is different for different kinds of numbers. The expression 3-5 gives a different result than 3u-5u. The expression 5/3*3 gives a different result from the expression 5./3.*3. > I wonder if it is worth it to define a "prime" number type > indicating the var only holds prime numbers. Types are shortcuts > representing the rules used to form numbers. [...] You're conflating the aspect of representation with the idea of a value predicate. In languages like C, the type of an arithmetic variable is used mainly to convey information about representation, and not about dynamic properties such as being prime. In other cases types, as for example struct types and union types, can carry more information than just representation. The notion of "type" in computer languages is very different from the idea of "type" in mathematics. It's a mistake to think of these different kinds of "type" as being equivalent.