EuLisp

[Henry G. Baker]

> Bignums need to be part of the language, to make mixed fixnum/bignum
> arithmetic work right (e.g. fixnum + fixnum may yield a bignum) and
> efficiently for the various numerical facilities. Providing access to
> fixnum-only primitives with overflow indication would also be helpful,
> but not sufficient for proper integration into the language.

I suggest that bignums _not_ be part of the core language, but built
on top of the core language _in Lisp_ using the appropriate primitives
(fixnum+fixnum -> fixnum + fixnum(carry)), etc.

This and a number of suggestions are made in

ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker/CritLisp.html  (also .ps.Z)

Perhaps, due to the interest in LispOS, it is time to reread this
paper?

-- 
Henry Baker
www/ftp directory URL:
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker/home.html