You could take an alternate view: anything with a sign is an expression. So, the decimal value of 2**32-1 could be treated as a self-defining term.
The same issue sometimes arises when people discuss the difference between X'FFFF' and 65535 -- if System/360 had been a 16-bit machine, would the maximum value of a decimal self-defining term be 32767? John Ehrman ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2017 23:14:40 -0500 >From: Sudershan Ravi <[email protected]> >Subject: Hex and Decimal >The maximum value of a decimal self-defining term is 231−1, while the maximum >value a binary or hexadecimal self-defining term is 232−1. Why are they >different? ------------------------------ >Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2017 23:21:00 -0500 >From: Robert Netzlof <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: Hex and Decimal >The decimal term is signed, binary and hexadecimal are unsigned. >Therefore, the decimal term has only 31 bits available to record >magnitude, binary and hex can use 32 bits since there is no sign.
