Nim (the original one, not Nimony) compiles to C, so making basic types work differently from C would involve major performance costs.
> making basic types work differently from C would involve major performance costs.
Not if you compile with optimizations on. This C code:
int wrapping_add_ints(int x, int y) {
return (int)((unsigned)x + (unsigned)y);
}
Compiles to this x86-64 assembly (with clang -O2): wrapping_add_ints:
lea eax, [rdi + rsi]
ret
Which, for those who aren't familiar with x86 assembly, is just the normal instruction for adding two numbers with wrapping semantics.
Presumably unsigned want to return errors too?
Edit: I guess they could get rid of a few numbers... Anyhow it isn't a philosophy that is going to get me to consider nimony for anything.