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From: msb@sq.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: bit patterns of all ones
Message-ID: <1987Jan26.132135.9624@sq.uucp>
Date: Mon, 26-Jan-87 13:21:35 EST
Article-I.D.: sq.1987Jan26.132135.9624
Posted: Mon Jan 26 13:21:35 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Jan-87 00:35:40 EST
References: <1382@hoptoad.uucp> <690001@hplsla.HP.COM>
Reply-To: msb@sq.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto
Lines: 18
Checksum: 39679
Summary: ANSI does seem to me to require binary

> >Does ANSI explicitly require binary arithmetic?

Doug Gwyn responds:

> For purposes of signed<->unsigned conversion of parameters
> and bitwise operations, X3J11 decreed semantics "as if" a
> binary numeration system were used.  The underlying architecture
> can, however, be quite different, so long as the implementation
> properly mimics the abstract machine.

However, section 3.1.2.5, page 21, lines 38-39 of the Draft says:

# The values of integral types shall be interpreted in a pure
# binary numeration system.

I see no "as if" here, and cannot make out that one is implied.

Mark Brader