Re: Using the GNU GMP Library for Bignums in Emacs

[Richard Stallman]

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  > So, in this case, would it truncate the output or use a wider
  > field, if the value couldn’t “properly” be shown in the specified
  > size?

I think we want the option of truncating (which includes truncating a
negative number as 2s complement), and the option of signaling an
error when the value does not fit (when it would require truncating).

It would be ok also to have the option of using extra digits, as many
as needed.  That option would have to print a minus sign if the number
is negative, since treating it as positive would require infinitely
many digits.

I am not sure that third option is really useful, but if it is, let's
have it.

  > It would be logical to consider whether the same format extensions
  > would be useful with %o or %d (or others?) being used to format
  > bignums.

I don't think these features are useful for decimal output.  (Has
anyone ever wanted them?)  For octal, I am not sure.  Maybe octal
should be treated like hex.



-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
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