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From: jab@uokvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: C needs BCD (ANSI People: Please Lis
Message-ID: <3000044@uokvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Oct-84 04:59:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uokvax.3000044
Posted: Thu Oct 25 04:59:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Oct-84 20:08:32 EST
References: <218@x.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:x:-21800:uokvax:3000044:000:833
Nf-From: uokvax!jab    Oct 24 22:59:00 1984

/***** uokvax:net.lang.c / x!craig /  6:31 pm  Oct 22, 1984 */
Unfortunately, C does not give a programmer access to the BCD machine
instructions offered by most modern computers/microprocessors.

Why should C provide floating point operations and not provide
BCD operations ? 
/* ---------- */
Pardon me while I bury my head in the sand.

C doesn't provide BCD for the same reasons that it doesn't provide FULL
floating-point (note that "float" is treated like a step-child, while
"double" is not). It's something that the people designing the language
simply didn't need to get their jobs done, I suspect (systems programming
is simply NOT DP programming), and its addition would have made the
compiler larger.

When the first compiler for C was written, they were talking 64K address
space, on good days.

	Jeff Bowles
	Lisle, IL