Associating a distinct power of 2, i.e., 2^0 = 1, 2^1 = 2, 2^2 = 4, 2^4 = 8, . . . , with each condition permits a return-code value, initialized to be zero, to be set additively without loss of information.
Shmuel presumably knows (or, better, once knew) this. He is up to his old tricks of highly selective, partial quotation and misrepresentation. (There are, of course, uses for multiples of four in branch tables that contain four-byte addresses or multiples of eight in branch tables that contain eight-byte addresses; but they were not under discussion.) "Which would be never" is nevertheless an agreeable variation on 'No', 'PKB', and the like. We can no longer expect useful or even relevant content in his posts, but it would appear that we may still look forward to an occasional sad little rhetorical flourish. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
