At 11:49 AM 9/1/00 -0500, David L. Nicol wrote:
>Dan Sugalski wrote:
>
> > We're shooting for speed here. Any common operation that could be affected
> > by the type of the variable should be represented so a custom function can
> > be called that does exactly what needs to be done.
> >
> > Dan
>
>so if I want to make up a type that is strictly a 16-bit integer, I overload
>everything except the math operations with pointers to errors? That's the
>direction I'm going (off by myself), to merging C in, and that's why a even
>more limited base type appeals to me.
No, you provide functions that do the right thing. If you have a 16-bit
integer scalar, you should still return a floating point value or string
representation, or a 32-bit (or native sized, at least) integer if asked.
>But of course, with a more limited base type, every call to plus would have
>to check to see if plus was there before resolving, instead of just hopping
>over the edge and trusting the top end of the rope to be tied.
No, we hop over the edge. It's not unreasonable for perl to expect internal
consistency.
Dan
--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski even samurai
[EMAIL PROTECTED] have teddy bears and even
teddy bears get drunk