Subject: Re: Beginner's Language? From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 23:56:05 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3200342163192289@naggum.net> * Frode Vatvedt Fjeld > Sound a bit like a floating decimal point to me ;-) Exactly the same, except for the base of the exponent, where 10 is simply a _major_ pain. Imagine how elegantly the worlds of the man and machine would have merged if we had not decided to base our number systems on the number of digits, but had used the thumbs more intelligently, like binary flags. Suppose the right thumb meant 8 and the left meant 16. We could have counted to 32 using only two hands. "Sweet 16" would only have been a digit away. (With a slogan like that, you could probably get arrested in some states.) #:Erik -- Go octal!