The internal format used for an external representation depends only on the exponent marker and not on the number of decimal digits in the external representation. While Common Lisp provides terminology and notation sufficient to accommodate four distinct floating-point formats, not all implementations will have the means to support that many distinct formats. For output purposes all floating-point numbers are assumed to be of single format and thus will print using the exponent letter E or F . For output purposes all floating-point numbers are assumed to be of short or single format. For output purposes all floating-point numbers are assumed to be of single or double format.
Similar constraints apply.