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From: TVR%CCRMA-F4@SAIL.Stanford.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: \"Infinite\" precision
Message-ID: <4521@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 18-Feb-87 04:27:26 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.4521
Posted: Wed Feb 18 04:27:26 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Feb-87 18:38:27 EST
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
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>>  In Algol 68 there is a provision for infinite precision arithmetic
>>  (theoretically anyway--I don't know if anyone ever implemented such
    a compiler).  Each time one prepends the word "long" to a variable
    declaration, the compiler doubles the number of bits reserved.  (Or 
    perhaps adds a constant factor--I forget.)

"Infinite" precision arithmetic has existed for years in many (if not most)
LISP compilers and has proven to be quite valuable in both abstract and
applied mathematics.  Some implementations are so transparent that an
infinite loop involving a multiply in what you thought were ordinary
integers is sometimes detected by slowly exhausting address space...