Summary

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	File:     signed.icn

	Subject:  Procedure to put bits into signed integer

	Author:   Robert J. Alexander

	Date:     April 2, 1990

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   This file is in the public domain.

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  signed(s,n) -- Puts raw bits of characters of string s into an
  integer.  The value is taken as signed.

  If large integers are supported, this routine will work for integers
  of arbitrary size.

  If large integers are not supported, the following are true:

    If the size of s is the same as or greater than the size of an
    integer in the Icon implementation, the result will be negative or
    positive depending on the value of the integer's sign bit.

    If the size of s is less than the size of an integer, the bytes are
    put into the low order part of the integer, with the remaining high
    order bytes filled with sign bits (the high order bit of the first
    character of the string).  If the string is too large, the most
    significant bytes will be lost.

  This procedure is normally used for processing of binary data read
  from a file.

This file is part of the (main) package.

signed(s)