Optionally treat integers as signed numbers with %o
and %x format specifiers, instead of treating them as
a machine-dependent two’s complement representation.
This option is more machine-independent, allows formats
like "#x%x" to be useful for reading later, and is
better-insulated for future changes involving bignums.
Setting the new variable ‘binary-as-unsigned’ to nil
enables the new behavior (Bug#32252).
This is a simplified version of the change proposed in:
https://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-devel/2018-07/msg00763.html
I simplified that proposal by omitting bitwidth modifiers, as
I could not find an any example uses in the Emacs source code
that needed them and doing them correctly would have been
quite a bit more work for apparently little benefit.
* doc/lispref/strings.texi (Formatting Strings):
Document that %x and %o format negative integers in a
platform-dependent way. Also, document how to format
numbers so that the same values can be read back in.
* etc/NEWS: Document the change.
* src/editfns.c (styled_format): Treat integers as signed
numbers even with %o and %x, if binary-as-unsigned is nil.
Support the + and space flags with %o and %x, since they’re
about signs.
(syms_of_editfns): New variable binary-as-unsigned.
* test/src/editfns-tests.el (read-large-integer):
Test that maximal integers can be read after printing
with all integer formats, if binary-as-unsigned is nil.