But that's just because C's automatic conversions are broken. C's automatic conversions are not the only possible design. Common Lisp (for example) has a vast

But that's just because C's automatic conversions are broken. C's automatic conversions are not the only possible design. Common Lisp (for example) has a vastly better design. But regardless, I don't see how a reasonable result of multiplying (say) 3.14 by 2 can be anything other than 6.28.