On 12/06/2009 10:11 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
D has operator >>> which means "unsigned shift to the right", inherited
from Java. But it doesn't need it because D has unsigned types, which
can be used to effect unsigned shift. (Java, lacking unsigned types, had
no other way around but to define a new operator.)
Should we yank operator>>>?
Andrei
taking the opportunity to review what the difference is between >> and >>>
for signed integers, >> is equivalent to divide by 2. It leaves the sign
bit unchanged. >>> is an actual bit shift. Neither moves the lower n
bits to the upper n bits or anything like that.
for unsigned integers, >> is equivalent to divide by 2. >>> is an actual
bit shift, but that's equivalent to divide by 2, so >> and >>> are the same.
I've never liked that >> doesn't actually shift all of the bits, and the
only valid use for it is equivalent to
a / 2^^n
except less readable. Although I don't suppose one should be doing
bitwise manipulations with signed integers in the first place..
