> On Jun 23, 2016, at 8:47 PM, Félix Cloutier <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for answering my questions earlier. I like a lot of the changes.
> 
> Speaking of heterogeneous comparisons again, though, how are comparisons of 
> negative signed integers with unsigned integers handled?
It is in the prototype: 
https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/test/Prototypes/Integers.swift.gyb#L334

> 
> Félix
> 
>> Le 23 juin 2016 à 17:36:14, Max Moiseev via swift-evolution 
>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> a écrit :
>> 
>>> > For Integer, does the presence of signBit indicate an expectation that 
>>> > signed Integers will have a two's complement representation?
>>> Yes. That is correct.
>>> 
>>> So would this require a BigInt implementation to be in two's complement 
>>> also? Most BigInt implementations use a separate sign I think, not sure if 
>>> that's for performance reasons or merely convenience though.
>> 
>> 
>> This is a very valid concern. I think I have discovered a truly marvelous 
>> solution a way of addressing it:
>> 
>> `signBitIndex` is only used (I’m talking about the prototype now) to 
>> determine the absolute required minimum of bits needed to represent the 
>> current value of number when converting it to a different type.
>> 
>> So, instead of mentioning the sign bit, let’s call it what it is 
>> ‘minimumRequiredWidth’ or something along this line. This move will also 
>> allow the default implementation of `minimumRequiredWidth` to simply return 
>> `bitWidth` for unsigned numbers and and `bitWidth - 1` for positive signed, 
>> etc.
>> 
>> This way bignum implementations don’t have to have any specific underlying 
>> representation. They can either inherit the default implementation or 
>> implement their own version of `minimumRequiredWidth` in case the `bitWidth` 
>> has some extra unused space that is not absolutely required.
>> 
>> I still need to validate this idea, these are just the thoughts. Any 
>> comments are more than welcome.
>> 
>> Max
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jun 23, 2016, at 3:19 PM, Patrick Pijnappel <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> - I remain unconvinced that defining an Arithmetic that includes both exact 
>>> and floating-point numbers is a good idea. All of the arguments from Swift 
>>> 1 and 2 about why we didn't include this still seem relevant. To phrase it 
>>> in generic programming terms, what algorithm would be generic over 
>>> Arithmetic?
>>> 
>>> E.g. generic point/size/rect types.
>>> 
>>> > For Integer, does the presence of signBit indicate an expectation that 
>>> > signed Integers will have a two's complement representation?
>>> Yes. That is correct.
>>> 
>>> So would this require a BigInt implementation to be in two's complement 
>>> also? Most BigInt implementations use a separate sign I think, not sure if 
>>> that's for performance reasons or merely convenience though.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 7:40 AM, Jordan Rose via swift-evolution 
>>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> Oh, one more comment: I suggest naming the primary protocol something other 
>>> than "Integer", which IMHO is a little close to "Int" for a beginner. 
>>> "Integral" is a bit too ambiguous, but maybe "IntegerArithmetic" or 
>>> "ArithmeticInteger"? Or to go with the representation thing, 
>>> "BinaryInteger"? (Some of the requirements are at odds with a decimal-based 
>>> implementation.)
>>> 
>>> Jordan
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Jun 23, 2016, at 13:50, Jordan Rose <[email protected] 
>>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hey, standard library folks. Glad we're doing this one. :-)
>>>> 
>>>> - I remain unconvinced that defining an Arithmetic that includes both 
>>>> exact and floating-point numbers is a good idea. All of the arguments from 
>>>> Swift 1 and 2 about why we didn't include this still seem relevant. To 
>>>> phrase it in generic programming terms, what algorithm would be generic 
>>>> over Arithmetic?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> - What is Integer.init<T: FloatingPoint>(_:) supposed to do if the 
>>>> floating-point value is larger than the maximum representable integer? 
>>>> Smaller than the minimum? (As a special case, negative, when the integer 
>>>> type is unsigned?) Infinity? NaN?
>>>> 
>>>> - Integer.init<T: Integer>(_:) currently says "if it is representable". It 
>>>> should say something like "trapping if it is not representable".
>>>> 
>>>> - I find it odd that Integer.init(clamping:) privileges the bounds of 
>>>> fixed-width integers. I was going to suggest it should take a range to 
>>>> clamp to that defaults to the min and max, but that's not implementable 
>>>> for a BigInt.
>>>> 
>>>> - nthWord should count "from least-significant to most-significant" rather 
>>>> than "from the right".
>>>> 
>>>> - As mentioned before, it sounds like Integer requires a two's complement 
>>>> representation (if only so the result of nthWord can be interpreted 
>>>> correctly). That should probably be in the doc comment for the protocol.
>>>> 
>>>> - Why is bitWidth in bits but nthWord in words? (I know there's a good 
>>>> answer to this, but using them together seems like it will be common.)
>>>> 
>>>> - It's also probably worth calling out even more explicitly that bitWidth 
>>>> is a representation property, not a value property. That is, a BigInt with 
>>>> the value "1" could have a bitWidth of 1, 8, or 128.
>>>> 
>>>> - What does signBitIndex return if self is positive? I ask because it's 
>>>> just not in the doc comment, but thinking about the answer made it obvious 
>>>> that the correct return value for 0 is 0.
>>>> 
>>>> - For signed integers, does remainder(dividingBy:) have specified behavior 
>>>> for the sign of the result? See 
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulo_operation 
>>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulo_operation>.
>>>> 
>>>> - I do think having Swift.abs(_:) and Integer.absoluteValue is confusing, 
>>>> but I don't know what to do about it.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> - Why are bitwise operations limited to fixed-width integers? I see "The 
>>>> only difference is that because shifting left truncates the high bits of 
>>>> fixed-width integers, it is hard to define what a left shift would mean to 
>>>> an arbitrary-precision integer" further down, but I would just assume it 
>>>> wouldn't truncate (i.e. it would be a pure multiplication by two).
>>>> 
>>>> - Is there a requirement about left-shifting into the sign bit, for '<<' 
>>>> and for '&<<'?
>>>> 
>>>> - What is the ArithmeticOverflow type?
>>>> 
>>>> - When does the remainder operation overflow? (I just can't remember.)
>>>> 
>>>> - I feel a little weird having "someValue.and(mask)". Maybe bitwiseAnd or 
>>>> bitwiseAND to be more explicit?
>>>> 
>>>> - maskingShiftLeft/Right seem underspecified in their doc comments. Why 
>>>> can't the protocol requirement just assume the shift amount has already 
>>>> been masked, instead of performing the masking themselves? Is it because 
>>>> we won't be able to optimize that away?
>>>> 
>>>> I think that's about it. Great work, all!
>>>> Jordan
>>> 
>>> 
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