[whatwg] number-related feedback

[Jonas Sicking]

On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 3:17 AM, Jonas Sicking <jonas at sicking.cc> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 11:37 AM, Ian Hickson <ian at hixie.ch> wrote:
>> On Fri, 22 Aug 2008, Shannon wrote:
>>> Either way I would recommend making a decision on minimum and maximum
>>> integer values an using them consistently. If not I can imagine the
>>> rapid adoption of 64-bit systems will cause unexpected errors when the
>>> same code is run on older 32-bit systems. There are valid arguments for
>>> letting each system use its native integer but if this is the case then
>>> perhaps the spec should require MIN_INT and MAX_INT be made available as
>>> constants.
>>
>> ECMAScript does define a range, and the limits of that range are exposed
>> to scripts. Are there cases where there are non-script limits that would
>> benefit from being exposed? Use cases would be helpful here.
>
> I thought ECMAScript defined the value to be a IEEE 754 64bit float.

Ah, sorry, I missed that you didn't have a 'not' in your response :)

There are in fact interop issues given the fact that ECMAScript allows
for a range bigger than a 32bit integer can fit. For example you could
do

myInput.maxLength = 5000000000;

This would is within the bounds and precision of ECMAScript, but won't
work in a 32bit integer implementation.

/ Jonas