R devel - Jun 2017 - R history: Why 'L; in suffix character ‘L’ for integer constants?

Yeah, that was what I heard from our instructor when I was a graduate
student: L stands for Long (integer).

Regards,
Yihui
--
https://yihui.name


On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 11:00 AM, Serguei Sokol <sokol at
insa-toulouse.fr> wrote:
> Le 16/06/2017 ? 17:54, Henrik Bengtsson a ?crit :
>>
>> I'm just curious (no complaints), what was the reason for choosing
the
>> letter 'L' as a suffix for integer constants?  Does it stand
for
>> something (literal?), is it because it visually stands out, ..., or no
>> specific reason at all?
>
> My guess is that it is inherited form C "long integer" type
(contrary to
> "short integer" or simply "integer")
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_data_types

But R "integers" are C "ints", as opposed to S
"integers", which are C
"long ints".  (I suppose R never had to run on ancient hardware with
16 bit
ints.)

Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 10:47 AM, Yihui Xie <xie at yihui.name> wrote:
> Yeah, that was what I heard from our instructor when I was a graduate
> student: L stands for Long (integer).
>
> Regards,
> Yihui
> --
> https://yihui.name
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 11:00 AM, Serguei Sokol <sokol at
insa-toulouse.fr>
> wrote:
> > Le 16/06/2017 ? 17:54, Henrik Bengtsson a ?crit :
> >>
> >> I'm just curious (no complaints), what was the reason for
choosing the
> >> letter 'L' as a suffix for integer constants?  Does it
stand for
> >> something (literal?), is it because it visually stands out, ...,
or no
> >> specific reason at all?
> >
> > My guess is that it is inherited form C "long integer" type
(contrary to
> > "short integer" or simply "integer")
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_data_types
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Wikipedia claims that C ints are still only guaranteed to be at least 16 bits,
and longs are at least 32 bits. So no, R's integers are long.

-pd
> On 16 Jun 2017, at 20:20 , William Dunlap via R-devel <r-devel at
r-project.org> wrote:
> 
> But R "integers" are C "ints", as opposed to S
"integers", which are C
> "long ints".  (I suppose R never had to run on ancient hardware
with 16 bit
> ints.)
> 
> Bill Dunlap
> TIBCO Software
> wdunlap tibco.com
> 
> On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 10:47 AM, Yihui Xie <xie at yihui.name>
wrote:
> 
>> Yeah, that was what I heard from our instructor when I was a graduate
>> student: L stands for Long (integer).
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Yihui
>> --
>> https://yihui.name
>> 
>> 
>> On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 11:00 AM, Serguei Sokol <sokol at
insa-toulouse.fr>
>> wrote:
>>> Le 16/06/2017 ? 17:54, Henrik Bengtsson a ?crit :
>>>> 
>>>> I'm just curious (no complaints), what was the reason for
choosing the
>>>> letter 'L' as a suffix for integer constants?  Does it
stand for
>>>> something (literal?), is it because it visually stands out,
..., or no
>>>> specific reason at all?
>>> 
>>> My guess is that it is inherited form C "long integer"
type (contrary to
>>> "short integer" or simply "integer")
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_data_types
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Office: A 4.23
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com