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In article <722322705@sheol.UUCP> throopw@sheol.UUCP (Wayne Throop) writes:

			...................

                  e can communicate binary integers across machines
>: and implementations; the much used notation 0ddddd for octal and
>: 0xdddddddd for hexadecimal, bad as they are, do this explicitly.
>
>So, what does this have to do with the semantic model of the language?
>What prevents one from converting the floats to binary representation
>in ascii, transmitting that, reading the result, and doing the
>inverse conversion?

This will not do the job.   The binary representations of floats on
CRAYs, CYBERs, VAXen, RS/6000s, etc., are all different.  Also, these
are only the representations of floats within the precision of the
machine.  In addition, there is NO remotely standard fixed-point 
binary representation of non-integers which can be communicated.

With integers, we can transmit integers of arbitrary length in decimal,
octal, or hexadecimal without having any idea of how the hardware/software
of the machine handles it.  We have corresponding facilities for fixed-
point and floating-point decimals.  If someone types in pi to 200 digits,
there is no problem in understanding what is communicated, whether fixed-point
or floating-point.  But now how do you do this if one is not interested in
communicating the decimal representation, but the hex or octal?  

If one is writing a program, the non-integral constants often should be
given in octal or hex for various reasons.  This means that the language
in which that program is written must have some way to read them.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@snap.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)  
{purdue,pur-ee}!snap.stat!hrubin(UUCP)