[Info-vax] VMS process communication

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 3/14/2023 2:05 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 3/14/2023 1:37 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>> On 3/14/2023 9:08 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>> On 2023-03-13, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>>> The way most/all people consider math, numbers can be either 
>>>> positive or
>>>> negative.  Yes, "natural".  Computer languages were developed using 
>>>> this
>>>> concept.  While unsigned numbers are useful, they aren't something 
>>>> people
>>>> normally consider.
>>>
>>> Much of the time you don't need signed integers and the problem you are
>>> trying to solve is a better match with unsigned integers.
>>>
>>> Let me put it this way: How many filesystems and file sizes and other
>>> limits through computing history are half the maximum size they should
>>> be because everyone used signed integers instead of unsigned integers ?
> 
> When it involves data size and the demand grow x2 every 2 years or so,
> then that extra bit will not save they day for long.
> 
>> Understand, I think unsigned numbers would be very useful.  I wish 
>> Basic support such.
> 
> I miss them in Java as well.
> 
>>               But my point is, they are not so "natural" to humans, 
>> and after all, humans are the users of computers.  So development 
>> followed what people do.
> 
> If you stop 100 random people on the street and ask about integers, then
> 99 will include negative numbers, that is the common definition in
> math/english/danish/whatever.
> 
> Those that remember their math will remember the term natural
> numbers to exclude negative numbers.

Note that it is really highly unlikely that a given
problem domain actually need types:

-2147483648..2147483647
0..4294967295

It is way more likely to have a need for types like:

1..100
0..99
-10..10
etc.

But that is not in fashion today (Pascal, Modula-2,
Oberon, Ada etc. are rare today).

Arne