[% setvar title Fuller integer support in Perl. %]
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<a name='TITLE'></a><h1>TITLE</h1>
<p>Fuller integer support in Perl.</p>
<a name='VERSION'></a><h1>VERSION</h1>
<pre>  Maintainer: Shane Kerr &lt;<a href='mailto:shane@time-travellers.org'>shane@time-travellers.org</a>&gt;
  Date: 11 Sep 2000
  Mailing List: <a href='mailto:perl6-language@perl.org'>perl6-language@perl.org</a>
  Number: 209
  Version: 1
  Status: Developing</pre>
<a name='ABSTRACT'></a><h1>ABSTRACT</h1>
<p>Perl currently allows blocks of code to use integer math for both
increased performance and integer semantics.  This should be extended
to allow programs to specify both the size and signedness of integers.</p>
<a name='DESCRIPTION'></a><h1>DESCRIPTION</h1>
<p>Programs sometimes need to operate on values that map in a natural
fashion to integers of specific size.  For example, IPv4 addresses
may most naturally be represented as unsigned 32-bit integers.  By
default, Perl uses floating point numbers, but precision is lost in
the 32-bit integer range.</p>
<p>Currently the only safe alternative is to use strings for this range,
e.g. 0-padded hexidecimal numbers.  In order to both save memory and
allow more rapid processing, Perl should support the ability to specify
both the size and signedness of numbers for a given block.</p>
<a name='IMPLEMENTATION'></a><h1>IMPLEMENTATION</h1>
<p>Programs will specify arithmetic processing in typical Perl fashion:</p>
<pre>  use integer qw(32bit unsigned);

  use integer qw(64bit);</pre>
<p>Perl semantics will reflect this value until the end of current block.</p>
<a name='REFERENCES'></a><h1>REFERENCES</h1>
<p>perldoc integer for discussion of current integer support</p>
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