From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Kevin Rodgers Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: (read (current-buffer)) returns an integer in a buffer full of text? Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:22:00 -0700 Organization: IHS Message-ID: References: <1164303070.530993.199230@k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <1164724454.191296.147930@14g2000cws.googlegroups.com> <1164809864.480422.120420@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1164825071 10575 80.91.229.2 (29 Nov 2006 18:31:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 18:31:11 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Nov 29 19:31:11 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GpUCj-0006XF-Of for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:30:46 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GpUCi-00031Z-Uj for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:30:45 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1GpU5v-0005l7-GA for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:23:43 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1GpU5u-0005ju-E3 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:23:42 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GpU5t-0005j8-KW for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:23:41 -0500 Original-Received: from [80.91.229.2] (helo=ciao.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1GpU5t-0004q1-Ax for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:23:41 -0500 Original-Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1GpU5C-0004q1-B6 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:22:58 +0100 Original-Received: from 207.167.42.206 ([207.167.42.206]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:22:58 +0100 Original-Received: from ihs_4664 by 207.167.42.206 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:22:58 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 39 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.167.42.206 User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 (Windows/20061025) In-Reply-To: <1164809864.480422.120420@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com> X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:39102 Archived-At: Robert Thorpe wrote: > Sebastian Tennant wrote: >> However, why does this happen: >> >> (with-temp-buffer >> (insert "586114704") >> (backward-word) >> (read (current-buffer))) >> >> => 49243792 >> >> Is there an integer limit relating to symbols somehow? > > The function "read" will read whatever type it finds. It will treat > 586114704 as an integer. > > Try the following:- > Type 586114704 into scratch and do C-x C-e straight afterwards. > The echo area will display 49243792. This is because there is a limit > on integers in Emacs, they are 26-bits long. This allows you to > represent -67108865 to 67108864 I think. ,----[ C-h v most-positive-fixnum RET ] | most-positive-fixnum is a variable defined in `C source code'. | Its value is 268435455 | | Documentation: | The largest value that is representable in a Lisp integer. | | [back] `---- > Emacs doesn't warn you when you exceed the limit unfortunately. > > Generally if you want to do numerical things with Lisp you should use > another lisp such as Common Lisp. -- Kevin