Stop using "Int" for microsecond delays in "base"

[Daniel Fischer]

On Wednesday 30 March 2011 14:31:33, Wolfgang Jeltsch wrote:
> 
> Maybe, we should stop using Int altogether. Why not use Integer if we
> want integers, and try to implement Integer and its operations more
> efficiently?

Even getting near the performance of GMP with its probably hundreds of man-
years of optimisation gone in is hard, beating it is a formidable task.
Or were you thinking of making the calls to GMP faster?
If that could be done, that would be very nice.

> Int8, Int16, Int32, and Int64 are good when doing system
> programming, CInt is good when interfacing with C, but what is Int good
> for?

Speed. If you have computations you know won't overflow, it's good to have 
the native-sized Int and need not throttle things on 64-bit systems by 
using Int32 or on 32-bit systems by using Int64.

But in general, I agree that it would be good to use Integer instead of Int 
more often.

Cheers,
Daniel