math expressions (was: Re: Tail call elimination)

[Paul Smith]

On Wed, 2020-05-20 at 10:34 -0500, Pete Dietl wrote:
> I really like the idea of using GMP to do the math.

No, I'm not willing to make that requirement.

If anyone can provide any use case where >64bit math is needed in a
makefile I'll be interested to hear about it.

But, my position is that if you need that you should be using one of
the already-supported facilities for embedded support (guile and/or
using loadable objects).

> Arithmetic Functions:
> ---------------------------
> * add
> * subtract
> * multiply
> * divide

These definitely.

> * negate
> * absolute value
> * exponentiate

Maybe.

> Bit Manipulation:
> ----------------------
> * and
> * or
> * xor
> * complement
> * left shift
> * right shift

Maybe.  I have a hard time coming up with uses for these, other than
possibly the shift operators (but multiplication/division can be used
instead).

> Comparison Functions:
> ------------------------------
> * >
> * >=
> * <
> * <=
> * ==

These seem useful.

Again, the questions in my email yesterday need to be addressed.

Another one I forgot:

Mult-base support: should we support only base 10 integer constants in
expressions, or also hex/octal constants?