Re: whole number constants

glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> For mixed mode arithmetic, such as between different KINDs of
> REAL values, the shorter is always extended to match the
> longer type before the operation (+, -, *, or /) is performed.
> (** is a different question).   I don't know that the standard
> requires that zero bits be used in doing that,

It does not require it (although, as you say, almost all compilers do it
that way in practice; the only exceptions I can think of are cases where
some compilers try to guess what the user wanted). The standard is
silent on the whole question of the details about how such conversion is
performed. The standard doesn't even require that all kinds be such that
adding zero bits would be a logical choice. Consider the possibility
that the different kinds had different bases. True you won't see that in
practice today, but the standard does allow it.

-- 
Richard Maine                    | Good judgement comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgement.
domain: summertriangle           |  -- Mark Twain