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Re: bit-extract seems broken.
From: |
Dirk Herrmann |
Subject: |
Re: bit-extract seems broken. |
Date: |
Fri, 22 Dec 2000 14:55:34 +0100 (MET) |
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