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From: phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Multiple-Precision Operations (was Re: Quadruple-Precision Floating Point ?)
Keywords: multiple-precision,arithmetic
Message-ID: <2340@garth.UUCP>
Date: 31 Dec 88 04:55:19 GMT
References: <8561@alice.UUCP> <3688@s.cc.purdue.edu> <285@loligo.fsu.edu> <6132@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <1080@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps)
Followup-To: comp.lang.misc
Organization: INTERGRAPH (APD) -- Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 31

In article <1080@l.cc.purdue.edu>,
cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>
>There is need for the software operations 
>which those who understand the use of bit patterns
>find useful to be included in the languages.
>That these operations are not much used is no evidence
>[for their exclusion].

I deal regularly with "bit patterns" as a languages/compilers person, 
but I have never attempted (or wanted) to write code for things like 
multiple-precision arithmetic, FFTs, or data compression.
I assume that those are examples of the bit-pattern dirty work 
that Rubin has in mind.

Now that Rubin has provoked a reaction, here's your chance -- what, 
specifically, would you "find useful" for doing that work in an HLL ?
 
>What is needed [for multiple precision operations]
>is fast unsigned integer arithmetic. 

Don't you need access at the language source-code level to carry-bits 
and things like them, e.g., for multiple-precision operations ? 

[Note that the discussion has been split: into "comp.arch", where it 
originated, and into "comp.lang.misc", for language features only.]
-- 
[The foregoing may or may not represent the position, if any, of my employer]
 
Clay Phipps                       {ingr,pyramid,sri-unix!hplabs}!garth!phipps
Intergraph APD, 2400#4 Geng Road, Palo Alto, CA 93403            415/494-8800