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From: Sebastian Redl (sebastian.redl_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-05-28 07:11:51


Bronek Kozicki wrote:

>In other words, if you can
>"infinitely" extend given positive number towards +inifnity, does it make any
>sense to disallow its extension past zero? It makes me think that concept of
>"unsigned integer with infinite precision" is self-contradictory.
>
>
No, it's not. Precision and signedness have nothing to do with each
other. The main (only, really, when it comes down to it) difference
between a signed and an unsigned integer is that an unsigned integer is
defined never to have a value less than 0. There are very valid reasons
to enforce such a restriction, even when you want no upper limit (the
term infinite precision is not really appropriate for integers).

Sebastian Redl


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