Mathmatically, zero is neither positive or negative. What you see is the result of Perl fudging a little.

Also, there is no "flag" value for negative numbers, at least not in the way you're probably thinking. See Twos-complement on Wikipedia. Although the concept is more complex than a simple flag value, it ends up simplifying the logic required for using signed numbers.

----
I wanted to explore how Perl's closures can be manipulated, and ended up creating an object system by accident.
-- Schemer

: () { :|:& };:

Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated

In reply to Re: Applying Sign Bit by hardburn
in thread Applying Sign Bit by budman

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