From: black.hole.4.spam{at}gmail.com (Don Hills)

In article , "Geo"
 wrote:
>
>Why? I don't mean why do they exist but why do programmers need to worry
>about this stuff? I don't remember the complexities of number types I had
>when learning C++ when I was learning basic.

It dates from the original design of C, which was still tied quite tightly
to what was available in the underlying machine instruction set. Although
it helps performance if used properly it can lead to errors if not designed
carefully enough to avoid overflows etc.

That's one reason I like REXX, there is only one data type, a string. Some
people prefer strongly typed languages so that errors such as putting the
wrong data type in a variable are caught, but since REXX provides similar
functionality if required I've never found it a problem.

--
Don Hills    (dmhills at attglobaldotnet)     Wellington, New Zealand
"New interface closely resembles Presentation Manager,
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    -- Advertisement on the box for Microsoft Windows 2.11 for 286

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