Signed word lengths and indexes

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> Note that your argument is predicated on using signed types instead of 
>> unsigned types in the first place, and tacitly assumes the issue is 
>> frequent enough to *add a new operator*. Yet unsigned shifts correlate 
>> naturally with unsigned numbers.
>>
>> So what is exactly that is valuable in >>> that makes its presence in 
>> the language justifiable?
> 
> Generally the irritation I feel whenever I right shift and have to go 
> back through and either check the type or just cast it to unsigned to be 
> sure there is no latent bug.
> 
> For example, the optlink asm code does quite a lot of unsigned right 
> shifts. I have to be very careful about the typing to ensure a matching 
> unsigned shift, since I have little idea what the range of values the 
> variable can have.

I'm sure all linker asm writers will be happy about that feature :o}.

Andrei