🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <lihth9INNbpo@spim.mti.sgi.com> jackc@vermont.mti.sgi.com (Jack Choquette) writes:

|   |> Isn't this in fact how booleans are represented in BLISS, the language
|   |> in which a lot of VMS was/is written?
|
|
|   Since many programs use boolean variables for control flow but use integers
|   as the boolean variable, I could see how this could be useful.  However,
|   if a int value is being used as a single boolean variable it would make
|   more sense to use/have an instruction like branch on zero.  It's more general
|   purpose and useful.  You can use it to test boolean values as well as
|   count down (to zero) loops.

The alpha has those too, but that is not the issue.  If I remember
correctly, all odd integer values were considered true in BLISS, and
all even values false.  Using test-for-zero for boolean tests only
works if zero is the unique representation for one of the boolean
values (as in C), but this is neither inherent nor clearly superior.