World: r4wp

Yes, the reason why GOBs needed GC was that they did not fit within 
128 bits.

(GOB is 512 bits)

So there's a "gob reference" value type?

Yes

Ah, I see. A "gob value" is just a pointer to the real gob structure.

REBGOB (the part needing GC) is 512 bits, while Reb_Gob (fits within 
128 bits and points to a REBGOB)

REBGBO! :)

Thanks for clarifying.

Yes, sorry, it is just struct Reb_Gob called REBGBO.

BTW, REBGBO looks quite ugly to me

(I mean just the name)

Maybe REBGBI (in analogy to REBSRI) would be better?

Is the "index" field of REBGBO presently used?

yes

you can write:

next gob

So, actually, the "full GOB" is 544 bits, not just 512

(when summing REBGOB and REBGBO while subtracting the pointer.

I am quite curious whether it would be possible to fit a Rebol value 
to less than 256 bits when using 64-bit memory pointers

I originally guessed 160 bits might suffice, but I would not bet 
on it now.

if not wanting to make some "big adjustments", it looks like absolutely 
necessary to go to at least 224 bits.

I'd be quite interested in that as well.

And I'd generally try to stay 64-bit aligned.

...which yields exactly 256 bits :-(

192 or 256, yes.

some "values" contain 3 pointers, which gives 192 + type information 
+ alignment = 256

Hi, all, a "stupid" question: R3 is still called "alpha" (and there 
*are* issues I want solved before moving it to beta). One of the 
issues is the "gotcha" represented by the DECIMAL! name. I know that 
it is used consistently in Rebol, but it is still a "gotcha" for 
any possible newcomers actually stating something like: "here mathematics 
is not welcome", which is not true so much as I (mathematician by 
the education) would say.


Also, having a "truly decimal" datatype called MONEY! in R3, I would 
prefer a rename:

MONEY! rename to DECIMAL!

DECIMAL! rename to REAL! or FLOAT! (or something else that could 
be popular)


So, how many of you prefer to keep the DECIMAL! name for the 64-bit 
IEEE 754 binary floating point format used in Rebol and

how many of you prefer to rename the DECIMAL! datatype to something 
else?

I would not mind this change.

I'm strongly in favour of this change (and would prefer float! over 
real!).

Not a stupid question, a hard one. 

1) Keep money! as it is.
2) Use new decimal type for decimal!  +1
3) Use float! (not real!) as the name for IEEE754  +1

Thanks for 3). As far as 1) and 2) go, it looks that you did not 
read

www.rebol.net/wiki/Money


yet?

Lad: +1

That should be more in line with Red's type naming. So:

* Float!: +1 (though I'm not against real!, float! is more CS than 
maths)

* Decimal! for a BCD type (could use money literal form, so, +1 for 
renaming money!)

It looks www.rebol.net is down?

for me too

Me too. Can't read the link.

rebol.net is back up, so I looked at the wiki artilcle. To clarify, 
I *did* know money changed in R3. What I meant was that I want that 
to stay the same as it is now, in R3.

Good idea, Ladislav, I agree.

+1 for Ladislav's idea.

Clarification: as far as I know nobody plans to change the implementation 
of the datatype. However, it is not money in fact, it is actually 
better characterized as a decimal datatype. That is why I did not 
understand why did you suggest any new decimal type since it already 
exists using just an inadequate  name.

or maybe adequate... The fact is that the syntax corresponds well 
to the money! name, and it makes sense to keep the syntax as is.

If counting just the votes for/against naming the IEEE 754 binary 
floating point datatype as float! and adding BrianH as one who prefers 
the decimal! name for backward compatibility reasons (he perceives 
a datatype name to be influencing language syntax in a big way) I 
am currently getting:


For float! name: Ladislav, Henrik, Andreas, Gregg, Robert, Doc, Rebolek, 
Endo
For decimal! name: BrianH

I would like to get more votes on this, though.

Not sure if my "vote" applies, but in the early stages of R3 development, 
I radically protested against anything being called Money, which 
I found being a capital nonsense. Also the "$" char representing 
the datatype notation is OK mostly for US, but not e.g. EU, where 
EUR is represented by its own char. 

So - not sure what my suggestion alligns with, but:


- remove Money datatype altogether, or let it be reserved for money/conversion 
purposes, along with $ char.

- use decimal! for BCD, no $ char, but if we need to distinguish 
from IEEE754, I can live with that 
- use float! for IEEE 754 stuff

float! instead of decimal!, decimal! instead of money! +1 (for both)

Pekr: how do you propose to distinguish literal forms of decimal! 
vs float! if you remove the $ prefix? Though I agree that the $ doesn't 
look nice from here (EU).

I love the mone! type, moreover you may use EUR$4 for EURO

It reduce to only 2 decimal automatically, it's very useful!

It advice you if you are macking some mistake

IEEE renamed to float!,   money! renamed to decimal!  


this way, the vast majority of apps which used decimals before will 
simply continue to work, but be more precise (albeit a bit slower).

Carl blog about "Currency designator for money datatype" http://www.rebol.net/cgi-bin/r3blog.r?view=0201

Carl stated in its reply "4.  No, we are not renaming decimal. It 
will remain as is." just to remember us.

So:

1) current R3 money! datatype is not a money type as R2 define it. 
So it can be renamed.

2) Should the actual R3 money! be renamed decimal! is againt Carl 
point, but I'm not against it if we ponder the compatibility issue 
(BrianH point).

3) decimal! -> float!  I don't like it but  Icould probably leave 
with!

4) a money! type must be considered as a BCD + currency type. A "must 
hvae" would be the possibility to programmaticaly define the rules 
to apply if mathematical operations arrived between different currency 
numbers. So it can throw an error or apply a conversion or change 
the resulting currency...
A dialect would be used to specify the rules :

money-rules [* M M currency M²    / M M error     / M² M currency 
M       + EUR CDN error     + EUR USD multiply 1.30800]
Think ">> M$2.0 * M$2.0     == M²$4.0"

>> EUR$10 + USD$10
== EUR$23.08