Re: Integral types and own type definitions (was Re: Suggested method for returning a string from a C program?)

On Wed, 26 Mar 2025 10:00:40 +0100
David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> wrote:

On 26/03/2025 00:55, James Kuyper wrote:

On 3/25/25 19:38, Keith Thompson wrote: 

Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> writes:
[...] 

                                         For me there's an
additional practical fact to keep in mind; that what we call
"Ganzzahl" (whole numbers) isn't corresponding to what "whole
number" means in English, 

>
What "whole numbers" means in English doesn't necessarily
correspond to what "whole numbers" means in English. 

 
According to the Wikipedia article on integers, "The whole numbers
were synonymous with the integers up until the early 1950s In the
late 1950s, as part of the New Math movement, American elementary
school teachers began teaching that whole numbers referred to the
natural numbers, excluding negative numbers, while integer included
the negative numbers. The whole numbers remain ambiguous to the
present day."

 
That's an interesting historical point, thanks.
 
It's also important in such discussions to remember that the USA
doesn't have a monopoly on the English language, or maths - they
can't even spell "maths" correctly :-)
 
So "everyday English" usage will vary in time and space, as will the
definitions people were taught in school (which most "normal" folk
will have long forgotten anyway).
 

But your school in UK taught you the same meaning of 'whole numbers' as
James's school in US. So, it seems, US and UK had common 'New Math'
movement that supposedly didn't affect majority of non-English-speaking
countries.

 
(It is entirely reasonable that the "everyday English" usage in the C
standards be based on US American usage - even though #include
<math.h> always makes me feel like I'm speaking with a lisp.)
 

I was born just in time to be taught the New Math in school. 

 
These days, of course, kids don't learn about any of this - they just
learn how to ask ChatGPT about it from their iPad.