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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!godot!ima!ISM780B!paul
From: paul@ISM780B.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: C needs BCD (ANSI People: Please Lis
Message-ID: <105@ISM780B.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 3-Nov-84 12:32:09 EST
Article-I.D.: ISM780B.105
Posted: Sat Nov  3 12:32:09 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Nov-84 04:43:44 EST
Lines: 15
Nf-ID: #R:x:-21800:ISM780B:25500049:000:468
Nf-From: ISM780B!paul    Oct 23 13:41:00 1984

> One of the biggest problems with C is the lack of a BCD
> (Binary Coded Decimal) arithmetic type.

PL/I has already been invented.  It has 11 million different flavors
of arithmetic.  Why didn't you use it?  Too slow?  Not available?
Think about why that might be.

> Why should C provide floating point operations and not provide
> BCD operations ?

Right.  So get rid of floating point :-).

~Ok, so it's a flame.  At least it's a short flame...~

-- Paul Perkins