An idealist's view of semantics for integer and real types
69. R. P. Brent,
An idealist's view of semantics for integer and real types,
Australian Computer Science Communications 4 (1982), 130-140.
Also Report TR-CS-81-14, Department of Computer Science, ANU, November 1981,
2+13 pp
Report: pdf (760K).
Abstract
The implementations of most programming languages restrict the maximum
size of integers because they are represented in a fixed number of bits.
Similarly, reals have a restricted exponent range and a restricted
precision. This paper suggests semantics for integer and real types which
are closer to the usual mathematical definitions of "integer" and "real",
and gives examples to illustrate their use. Possible implementations (both
with and without special-purpose hardware) and implications for space and
time-efficiency of programs are discussed.
Comments
For a more recent discussion of these issues, see
[188].
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