On Wed, 02 Apr 2014, Markus Reschke wrote to All:

 MR> Double Ouch! First one is using signed integers for the fido
 MR> address. Have you even seen a negative node number? That requires
 MR> tons of type conversions which could have been avoided.

it is actually to spec and political documentation which talks about using
an address of -1s for requesting a new node number but most these days are
using one of z:n/999 or z:n/9999 for these purposes...

on the other hand, i agree with you and my self-written software uses
unsigned word values for the numerical address portions... that let's me
handle 65535:65535/65535.65535 which a lot of other FTN software can't
touch since they are limites to 32767:32767/32767.32767...

but then one stops and wonders about any real need for such large numbers
in this day and age :)

then there's also the question of what happens when other systems receive
such large numbers when their mailers connect or their tossers attempt to
toss mail with such addresses :)

)\/(ark

One of the great tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a
gang of brutal facts. --Benjamin Franklin

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