which is why all right-thinking individuals reject the heresy of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two%27s_complement two’s complement] surely right-thinking individuals would prefer _negated_ two's complement... well, assuming positive numbers are on the right Theres are more negative integers than positive ones! On my system: most-positive-fixnum => 268435455 (integerp 268435455) => t (integerp 268435456) => nil (integerp -268435456) => t Interesting effect: (< (abs -268435456) 0) => t Because: (abs -268435455) => 268435455 (abs -268435456) => -268435456 An integer overflow error... A Java puzzler based on the above quirk of IEEE floating point implementations is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDN_EYUvUq0 Fast forward to "6. Histogram Mystery". ---- CategoryHumor