bear <xxxxxx@sonic.net> writes:

> Looking over the discussion archive, my impression is that
> the bitwise-operations were built on too many assumptions
> about integer length and representation, and it was withdrawn
> for revisions - basically, people may be looking for a design
> that makes it easier to support without constraining how
> people represent numbers.

Bitwise operations are very important.  They should not be coupled to
integers, at all.  One should think of them as arrays of bits, and
treat them as a separate type.

(Of course, it's nice to provide a conversion function that turns an
int into a bitarray, and vice versa.)

Thomas