Dec. 3, 2003
3:41 p.m.
Isn't the 'long' format the more general representation, with the 'int' format then being a performance hack to take advantage of the speed of C integer arithmetic?
I'm just wondering if a different way of thinking about it might help with figuring out how to handle a combined implementation.
I proposed that too, but Andrew Koenig didn't like it.
It's not me, it's Barbara Liskov at MIT. The general notion is that if Y is derived from X, then you should be able to use a Y wherever you might otherwise want to use an X. In other words, Y should support every operation that X supports, but Y can add operations of its own.