GNU bug report logs - #32252
[PATCH] %o and %x now format signed numbers

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From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 32252 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, eller.helmut <at> gmail.com
Subject: bug#32252: [PATCH] %o and %x now format signed numbers
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2018 05:41:38 +0300

> From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
> Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2018 17:50:46 -0700
> Cc: 32252 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> > #x-1 maybe interesting to the read function but it's not interesting to
> > humans.  Humans want to see #x3fffffffffffffff.
> 
> I doubt very much that most humans really want to see an error-prone notation 
> like that (can you easily spot the difference between it and 
> #x3ffffffffffffffff? I can't).

I don't know if "most" is accurate, but I'm definitely in that camp.

As for counting the number of 'f's, how is that different from
counting leading zeros?

> And even if some humans did want it, they won't get it on 32-bit
> Emacs.

I don't see any problem: the user always knows in what Emacs she is
running.

> This whole idea is a bad approach for Emacs.

This bad approach was with us since about forever.  It is a de-facto
correct behavior by now

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