IMO, both Lua parser and tonumber() function should return correct
float values in case of integer overflow.
This can be done safely as it does not break the main feature of integers:
integers will stay integers after tonumber(tostring(x)) conversion cycle.
One problem with all proposed solutions is math.mininteger. The
lexer reads numbers without signal. (Several languages do the
same, e.g. C). This means that -9223372036854775808 is read as
-(9223372036854775808) (a unary minus applied over a positive
constant). But 9223372036854775808 is not a valid integer, so it would
result in a float (or nil, or inf, or error). Whatever the choice, the
final value of -9223372036854775808 would not be an integer, despite
it being a valid integer.
(If the value results in a float, its negative can still be converted
back to an integer with the exact value, so it is not a huge
problem. But it is still weird...)
-- Roberto
