Re: gawk 3.1.2g problems with NaNs and substr etc.

[Aharon Robbins]

> To: Stepan Kasal <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: gawk 3.1.2g problems with NaNs and substr etc.
> From: Paul Eggert <address@hidden>
> Date: 07 Jul 2003 11:08:06 -0700
>
> Fixing this is low priority, I suppose, since gawk already has
> zillions of bugs dealing with strings containing more than 2**51
> characters or so, due to rounding errors.

For what it's worth, I resent your labelling this a "bug".  Particularly
on a public mailing list.  "Design shortsightedness" is perhaps a better
term; when gawk was designed circa 1986, 32 bit machines were still at
the higher end of things and 64-bit was way off in the distant future.

I would be really surprised to learn of *any* contemporary program that
doesn't have similar design shortfalls.  I also rather doubt that there
are a whole lot of contemporary programs that are thoroughly 64-bit ready.

Arnold