Scheme vs. CommonLisp vs. the World

[Henry G. Baker]

>     Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 19:44 EDT
>     From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry G. Baker)
> 
>     > I think I can count on my hands how many people think
>     > complex numbers should be retained in a new CL.
> 
>     I agree that complex numbers should _not_ be part of 'basic'/primitive
>     Lisp, but it should be possible to program them as a library package
>     on top.  Ditto for bignums.  
> 				 
> You might want to reconsider on bignums.  A single large file on a big disk these
> days overflows 32 bits in byte length.

Perhaps the 'digits'/'bigits' should be 64 bits instead of 32 bits.
But I still think that bignums should not be primitive.  Among other
things, one would like to program significant parts of the GC itself
in Lisp, and not have to worry about allocations.

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