;;;; Implicit widening, and the only thing worth pinning about it: the bits. ;;;; FIX.org 2026-09-20, "Implicit widening". ;;;; ;;;; A widening conversion is admitted exactly when it cannot change the ;;;; number, so every row here has an answer that is also the answer the source ;;;; type had. Which means the test is entirely about the *emitted* cast being ;;;; the right one: a sign-extension where the source is signed, a ;;;; zero-extension where it is not, and the float conversions picking sitofp ;;;; against uitofp by the same rule. Each of those is a separate instruction ;;;; on both backends and choosing the wrong one gives a wrong number rather ;;;; than a wrong type, which no type test would catch. ;;;; ;;;; The rows are picked so that a mistake is visible in the printed value: ;;;; ;;;; -5 i8 to i64 sext; a zext prints 251 ;;;; -1 i32 to i64 sext; a zext prints 4294967295 ;;;; 255 u8 to i16 zext; a sext prints -1 ;;;; 4000000000 u32 zext to i64; a sext prints -294967296 ;;;; 4294967295 u32 to f64, exact; a signed conversion prints -1 ;;;; -2000000000 i32 to f64; a uitofp prints 2294967296 ;;;; ;;;; Everything goes through a global rather than a literal, because a literal ;;;; is built at the wanted width by the literal rule and would never reach a ;;;; cast at all. (defvar i8-neg i8 -5) (defvar i8-pos i8 127) (defvar i16-neg i16 -300) (defvar i32-neg i32 -2000000000) (defvar i32-one i32 1) (defvar i32-all i32 -1) (defvar u8-max u8 255) (defvar u16-max u16 65535) (defvar u32-big u32 4000000000) (defvar u32-max u32 4294967295) (defvar i64-big i64 5000000000) (defvar f32-half f32 0.5) ;; Widening at a parameter. Each of these is a plain typed function and the ;; call sites below hand it a narrower type with no cast written anywhere. (defn take-i64 [x i64] i64 x) (defn take-i16 [x i16] i16 x) (defn take-u64 [x u64] u64 x) (defn take-f64 [x f64] f64 x) (defn take-f32 [x f32] f32 x) ;; Widening at a return position: the body is an i32 and the signature is i64. (defn ret-widened [] i64 i32-neg) ;; Widening in a binary operator, both orders. The first is the direction ;; [expect] already served; the second is the one the join rule added. (defn add-wide-first [] i64 (+ i64-big i32-one)) (defn add-narrow-first [] i64 (+ i32-one i64-big)) (defn main [args [string]] i32 ;; ── integer to integer ────────────────────────────────────────── (println (take-i64 i8-neg)) ;; -5 (println (take-i64 i8-pos)) ;; 127 (println (take-i64 i16-neg)) ;; -300 (println (take-i64 i32-all)) ;; -1 (println (take-i64 i32-neg)) ;; -2000000000 (println (take-i16 u8-max)) ;; 255 (println (take-i64 u8-max)) ;; 255 (println (take-i64 u16-max)) ;; 65535 (println (take-i64 u32-big)) ;; 4000000000 (println (take-i64 u32-max)) ;; 4294967295 (println (take-u64 u32-big)) ;; 4000000000 (println (take-u64 u8-max)) ;; 255 ;; ── a widened return ──────────────────────────────────────────── (println (ret-widened)) ;; -2000000000 ;; ── integer to float, exact only ──────────────────────────────── (println (take-f64 i32-neg)) ;; -2000000000.0 (println (take-f64 u32-max)) ;; 4294967295.0 (println (take-f64 i8-neg)) ;; -5.0 (println (take-f32 i16-neg)) ;; -300.0 (println (take-f32 u16-max)) ;; 65535.0 ;; The printer answers %g, which rounds an f64 long before the bits it is ;; carrying run out, so the exactness the int-to-float boundary is chosen for ;; is asserted by subtraction rather than by reading the digits. Each of ;; these is the difference between the widened value and the number it is ;; supposed to be, and a conversion that lost anything answers something ;; other than the last unit. (println (- (take-f64 u32-max) 4294967294.0)) ;; 1 (println (- (take-f64 i32-neg) -1999999999.0)) ;; -1 (println (- (take-f32 u16-max) 65534.0)) ;; 1 ;; ── float to float ────────────────────────────────────────────── (println (take-f64 f32-half)) ;; 0.5 ;; ── the binary join, both operand orders ──────────────────────── (println (add-wide-first)) ;; 5000000001 (println (add-narrow-first)) ;; 5000000001 ;; The narrower operand is the first one, and the sum is an i64 even though ;; nothing on this line is annotated. (println (+ i32-neg i64-big)) ;; 3000000000 ;; A comparison joins the same way, and the widened -1 must still be -1. (println (< i32-all i64-big)) ;; true ;; min and max over two widths answer at the wider one. (println (max i8-neg i16-neg)) ;; -5 (println (min i8-neg i32-neg)) ;; -2000000000 ;; A count narrower than the value widens to it; the value's width decides. (println (<< i64-big i8-pos)) ;; 0 -- masked to 127 mod 64 = 63 ;; An expectation reaches the operands, so this adds at i64 rather than ;; wrapping at i32 and widening the sum afterwards. (println (take-i64 (+ i32-neg i32-neg))) ;; -4000000000 0)