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From: smcl@sytex.com (Scott McLoughlin)
Subject: Re: AKCL: declare makes it worse??
Message-ID: <uLDosc2w165w@sytex.com>
Sender: bbs@sytex.com
Organization: Sytex Access Ltd.
References: <Cw4s0M.32C@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 03:45:05 GMT
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jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:
> 
> When you declare a variable to be of type fixnum in KCL, it will
> prbably be stored in a C int as an actual int.  Normally, fixnums
> are allocated on the heap inside some stuff that says they're
> fixnums.  This is sometimes called being "boxed", perhaps from
> the way list are sometimes diagrammed using boxes and arrows.
> 

Howdy,
        Boxed fixnums. Is this typical? I've always assumed
(I know ass-u-me) that fixnum would give me something like
III...IIttt, where ttt are low bit tags and III's are bits
for the fixnum (or swap high/low bits for high bit tagging
schemes).  Using 000 for ttt can even allow fast fixnum.+
with no tag extracting shifts. Boxed fixnums? Hmmm... Why?

=============================================
Scott McLoughlin
Conscious Computing
=============================================
