Weird datatype behaviour

General Usage
1

I’m trying to create a 24-bit datatype for a SIC/XE assembly simulator. So far I have this code:

import Core.Intrinsics

# defining a primitive 24-bit integer type for integer registers
primitive type SICInt 24 end

# other signed types -> SICInt
SICInt(x::Int) = Core.Intrinsics.trunc_int(SICInt, x)

# SICInt -> other signed types
Int32(x::SICInt) = Core.Intrinsics.sext_int(Int32, x)
Int64(x::SICInt) = Core.Intrinsics.sext_int(Int64, x)
Int(x::SICInt) = Core.Intrinsics.sext_int(Int, x)

# printing help
Base.show(io::IO, x::SICInt) = print(io, Int(x))

# Math operations
# TODO

# machine data structure
mutable struct Machine

    # registers
    A::SICInt
    B::SICInt
    X::SICInt
    L::SICInt
    S::SICInt
    T::SICInt
    F::Float64 # TODO
end

saved in a file called machine.jl.
Weird behaviour happens when I try to load the code into REPL:

see: 2 became of type Core.Int64 instead of Int64.
Strangely, this doesn’t happen if I call typeof(2) before the include statement:

Does anyone have any idea what could be going wrong here or how could I fix this?
Thank you very much.

2

First things first, Int64 and Core.Int64 are the same type, so nothing has actually changed type:

julia> Int64 === Core.Int64
true

However, you’re defining:

Int64(x::SICInt) = Core.Intrinsics.sext_int(Int64, x)

but you never did import Core: Int64, so your definition is actually creating a totally new function that just happens to have the name Int64.

The last part is why the printing of Int64 changes. I don’t totally understand the code that controls it (you can find it here: julia/show.jl at 038d8665afd2eeeaca81ba5ebd3da1ece40e69bc · JuliaLang/julia · GitHub ), but it seems that Julia tries to abbreviate Core.Int64 to Int64 since Int64 is defined in the Main module and is identical to Core.Int64. After your code is imported, there’s a brand new function called Int64, which has nothing to do with Core.Int64, so Julia has to print the entire Core.Int64 when showing the type name.

Now there’s a further question of why that behavior depends on the order of operations, which I admit I don’t totally understand.

So, to summarize:

  • Nothing has changed type, just the way some types are printed was changed to avoid conflicting with your Int64 and other definitions…
  • … but the real problem is that you presumably meant to do Core.Int64(...) = ... or import Core: Int64; Int64(...) = ... . I would recommend the former, as it’s more obvious to future readers of the code what is going on.
1 Like
3

Thank you, adding the line

import Core: Int64, Int32

solved the problem.