time() is a Perl function, implemented in C with 32 bit (long int) math relevant to the unix epoch.

A perl scalar is an interesting beast (also implemented in C) that can hold a string or a number or a reference so is not directly comparable to a short, int, long, float, double, char in C. It is in fact a struct. Have a look at this code and perlman:perlguts. On the Win95 box in front of me Perl will represent up to 2**49 (562,949,953,421,312) as an integer before resorting to scientific notation.

for ( 0..64 ) {
    $var = 2**$_;
    print "Perl can do 2**$_ : $var\n";
}
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cheers

tachyon

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