Re: Checking for loss of information on integer conversion

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > I can see how this could be a problem, but I still find the current
  > semantics pretty horrible, and completely different from what any Lisp
  > hacker would expect.

We should not exaggerate the importance of this.  The aim of Emacs
Lisp is to "get the job done", not to be maximally elegant.

  > Perhaps Emacs could acquire small bignums?  Say, boxed 64-bit integers
  > with signal on overflow?

Adding real bignums probably would not be much more work than that.
So IF we decide to do work in that area, let's add real bignums.
GNU MP does the hard part.

However, I'd rather prioritize progress in computing horizontal
alignment and widths with variable-width fonts.  That is something
we really need.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
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