Re: Int vs Integer

[Hans Aberg]

At 09:35 +0100 98/09/15, Simon Marlow wrote:
>I don't think the overflow checks will be particularly expensive.
>After all, it's just a test/branch sequence, with the branch not taken
>in the common case.  This is dwarfed by the costs of boxing/unboxing,
>heap checks, and testing whether each object is a small or large
>integer.

  One wants a type that for small numbers (fitting into a word) avoids
those other costs you are mentioning. Then the main cost is due to those
checks, and it becomes expensive relative to the Int, as it is then on such
a low level.

  Hans Aberg
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