From ... Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news2.kpn.net!news.kpn.net!nslave.kpnqwest.net!nloc.kpnqwest.net!nmaster.kpnqwest.net!nreader1.kpnqwest.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: Big Numbers References: <3212348552357456@naggum.net> <4Loz7.17$Ki7.2669@burlma1-snr2> <3212359955350833@naggum.net> <2sCz7.9$ji2.936@burlma1-snr2> Mail-Copies-To: never From: Erik Naggum Message-ID: <3212417177529936@naggum.net> Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 29 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 18:06:18 GMT X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@Norway.EU.net X-Trace: nreader1.kpnqwest.net 1003428378 193.71.66.49 (Thu, 18 Oct 2001 20:06:18 MET DST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 20:06:18 MET DST Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.lisp:18134 * Erik Naggum | I can imagine it. It does not take more than two languages that differ | only in their bignum support, and considering the proliferation of both | languages and implementations-called-languages, this situation will come | up if it has not already. * Barry Margolin | I thought we were discussing choosing languages, not implementations. "Implementations-called-languages" was a reference to the many languages that have only one implementation of themselves, barely meriting the "language" label. I have no idea what you thought it meant, but it seems you grew hostile because of it. | But I interpreted the original question as whether built-in bignum | support, considered all by itself, would be sufficient reason to choose | Lisp for a particular application. That seems like an unwarranted interpretation -- it is obviously so silly it would cause people to become hostile if they indeed meant such a thing. I interpreted it as a _necessary_ condition, not at all _sufficient_, or if you really have to: a sufficient reason to _reject_ a language, but not choose it. /// -- Norway is now run by a priest from the fundamentalist Christian People's Party, the fifth largest party representing one eighth of the electorate.