Re: About big integers in Lua 5.3.

[Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@...>]

2016-01-14 22:46 GMT+02:00 Coda Highland <chighland@gmail.com>:

> This is exactly my opinion on the matter. If I'm working with a
> 64-bit integer, and I KNOW I'm working with a 64-bit integer, then
> give me a 64-bit integer; I'm aware enough of the circumstances to be
> able to deal with the implications, and at the very least I can
> reconstruct the original positive number from the negative one because
> there hasn't been any actual data loss.

Basically I agree with you. Here is a non-technical example of basically
the same point.

People are by and large quite happy with "one o'clock" being later
than "twelve o'clock". That is to say, if the only numbers at your
disposal are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12, and you use them over
and over, people adapt to it easily. Context and usage make it
obvious what is meant.

It's not conceptually different when you get to integers. As long as
you know where they tick over, you can adapt.