Should you be able to initialize a float with a char?

[Walter Bright]

On 5/18/2022 5:47 PM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> But I have little hope for it, as Walter treats a boolean as an integer.

They *are* integers.

The APL language relies on bools being integers so conditional operations can be 
carried out without branching :-)

I.e.
     a = (b < c) ? 8 : 3;

becomes:

     a = 3 + (b < c) * 5;   // I know this is not APL syntax

That works in D, too!

Branchless code is a thing, it is used in GPUs, and in security code to make it 
resistant to timing attacks.

You'll also see this in the SIMD instructions, although they set all bits 
instead of just 1, because & is faster than *.

     a = 3 + (-(b < c) & 5);