Dah, should have said -Double.MAX_VALUE (possibly -Double.MAX_VALUE+1,
not sure).

On Oct 18, 1:19 pm, Casper Bang <casper.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > If the smallest double value held -Double.MAX_VALUE what would the constant
> > holding the smallest possible double value would be called -
> > Double.POSITIVE_SMALLEST_VALUE ?
>
> Frankly I have no need for such constant, what I often DO need to
> know, is the lowest value I can represent within the type. Most would
> expect the concept of "min" and "max" to be independent of internal
> representation of sign, fraction and exponent. An implementation of
> Comparable<Temperature> should revolve around less-than, equals and
> greater-than; assuming Double.MIN_VALUE would be well below absolute
> zero (a mere -273.15 celcius).
> Since Double has MIN_EXPONENT and MAX_EXPONENT, it would make sense if
> the current MIN_VALUE and MAX_VALUE had been named MIN_FRACTION and
> MAX_FRACTION instead. In Java and JavaScript, in order to get the
> minimum non-infinite value, you thus have to use -Double.MIN_VALUE
> (possibly -Double.MIN_VALUE+1, not sure).
>
> > Do you suggest that Double.MAX_VALUE hold
> > infinity ?
>
> Nope, there's already a Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY - there's a
> difference between infinity and the largest number you can represent.
> By definition, the former will always be greater than the latter.

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