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From: dan@b11.ingr.com (Dan Webb)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: # to the nth power
Message-ID: <9314@b11.ingr.com>
Date: 4 Nov 90 02:30:16 GMT
References: <9750@helios.TAMU.EDU> <1990Nov1.232830.17131@NCoast.ORG> <ENAG.90Nov3145415@hild.ifi.uio.no>
Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL
Lines: 21

In article <ENAG.90Nov3145415@hild.ifi.uio.no>, enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) writes:
> For all positive integers, you can prove that odd integers have the
> least significant bit equal to one, and even integers have the least
> significant bit equal to zero, when represented in binary.  Hint: odd,
> positive integers have a remainder of 1 when divided by 2.
> 
> For a ones-complement architectures, this even holds for negative
> integers.  Twos-complement architectures will return "odd" for an even
> negative number in this simple test.  Was that what you were thinking
> of?

I think you've got that backwards.  In 2's complement, -1 has all bits set,
and it's certainly an odd number.

I think the bottom line is that in 2's complement notation, the LSBit means
an odd number.  Period.

----------------------
Dan Webb
Intergraph Corp.
...!uunet!ingr!b11!dan