With the addition of native number types I have returned to an old line of
thought about why C# doesn't have a general Number type with other number types
in some sort of hierarchy under it.
Obviously there are times when using a very specific number type is important
for performance or compatibility but usually I don't really care. I probably
don't care if the number is represented as 32 bits or 64 bits, if it's signed
or not, if it is whole numbers or fractional, etc. So long as the behavior is
correct when casting to a more specific type I'd rather it just work with the
least amount of effort.
Likewise I'd like to more easily use lossless numbers of unlimited size,
including fractional values, when needed and easy manipulation of numbers into
different representations (such as byte order, different ways of storing the
sign, etc). Something similar to changing text encodings.
A general number type seems it'd ease portability even more than native types.
It was mentioned that Mono may push for these native types to made standard. Is
there a technical reason a general number type couldn't be, or shouldn't be,
introduced? Not asking anyone to actually doing it so much as trying to
understand the problem.
Sent from my iPad
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