> I'm just saying that I prefer declarations of the form "I need a
> variable to hold these following application-specific values" than
> saying "first, figure out what machine type will hold these
> application-specific values, then use that type." That latter step
> really ought to be done by the compiler, IMO.

It's not something the programmer should have to figure out manually, 
no. I guess whether it goes in the compiler or a library is moot.

>> Oh how ironic that you should pick md5sum - the one console
>> application that I've struggled with to find a working Win32 version!
>
> This doesn't work? http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/

The list at the top of the page indicates that this doesn't include md5sum.

>> Well, yeah. But I mean, you can make it grok stuff that doesn't look
>> like algebra; it's flexible enough to do that.
>
> Fair enough. :-)

Most CAS systems I've seen are hard-wired for algebra, and many of them 
have the transformation rules hard-wired as well. Mathematica is more 
general than that.

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