Re: bit-extract seems broken.

[Dirk Herrmann]

On 19 Dec 2000, Jim Blandy wrote:

> 
> Dirk Herrmann <address@hidden> writes:
> > On 19 Dec 2000, Jim Blandy wrote:
> > > Negative values for the @var{start} and @var{end} arguments to
> > > bit-extract aren't meaningful, as they index bits the value doesn't
> > > have.  A negative start or end should be an error.
> > 
> > Right, but what about extracting bits from a negative number?
> 
> Oh.  It should behave as if it were infinitely 1-extended.

This brings me to another question:  It seems that in a lot of places it
is assumed that the machine uses the two's complement representation for
fixnums.  I assume that this is the standard case, or should we try to
cover other representations as well?

Best regards,
Dirk Herrmann