(declare (type fixnum ---)) considered etc.

[Guy Steele <gls@Think.COM>]

    Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1986  10:39 EDT
    From: Rob MacLachlan <RAM@C.CS.CMU.EDU>
    ...
    It seems that FIXNUM is no less portable than FLOAT, since nothing is
    guaranteed about float exponent range and precision.  A Common Lisp
    program which uses floats cannot be totally portable.  One could take
    this as an argument against the currently system of float types, but
    I don't have a better solution.

One thing one can say is (OR FIXNUM (SIGNED-BYTE 20)), say, which a
sufficiently clever compiler (heh, heh, heh) would understand to mean
"use a fixnum, unless fixnums are less than 20 bits, in which case use
at least 20 bits (whatever that takes)".

--Guy