Surely this is not a common-enough requirement to warrant a special
syntax.
At 80-columns, you can represent integers up to ninety-nine
quinvigintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quattuorvigintillion, nine
hundred ninety-nine trevigintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine
duovigintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine unvigintillion, nine hundred
ninety-nine vigintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine novemdecillion, nine
hundred ninety-nine octodecillion, nine hundred ninety-nine
septendecillion, nine hundred ninety-nine sexdecillion, nine hundred ninety-
nine quindecillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quattuordecillion, nine
hundred ninety-nine tredecillion, nine hundred ninety-nine duodecillion,
nine hundred ninety-nine undecillion, nine hundred ninety-nine
decillion, nine hundred ninety-nine nonillion, nine hundred ninety-nine
octillion, nine hundred ninety-nine septillion, nine hundred ninety-nine
sextillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quintillion, nine hundred ninety-
nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-
nine billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine
thousand, and nine hundred ninety-nine.
Surely that's enough for the vast majority of users, isn't it?
And if you *do* need anything bigger (perhaps to represent the burgeoning
U.S. national debt) then there's always some variation on:
my $debt = +(
123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234
~ 567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678
~ 901234567890123456789012345678901
);
or even:
my $debt = +(
123_456_789_012_345_678_901_234_567_890_123_456_789_012_345_678_901_234
~ 567_890_123_456_789_012_345_678_901_234_567_890_123_456_789_012_345_678
~ 901_234_567_890_123_456_789_012_345_678_901
);
if you like to group your thousands for better readability.
With adequate constant folding, both of those are still compile-time constants.
Damian
