"Luke Palmer" schreef: > When do we do integer/rational math and when do we do floating point > math? > > That is, is 1 different from 1.0? Should 10**500 be infinity or a 1 > with 500 zeroes after it? Should 10**10**6 run out of memory? Should > "say (1/3)**500" print a bunch of digits to the screen or print 0? > > These are just examples. Exponentials are the easiest to think about > limit cases with, but the whole general issue needs precise semantics.
A Numeric could have multiple faces: Integer, Rational, Float, etc. Some faces can have a Complex variant. A bitstring could flag which faces are actual (usable, non-dirty). Each face needs its own storage, for instance 1/2 could be stored as Integer "0" (or "1", or alternating between them), Rational "1 / 2" (or "2 ** -1"), Float "1B-1", etc. Some conversions are without surprises, like from Integer to Float (because loss of precision is normal when going from Integer to Float, so even a difference of more than 1 is to be expected). >From Float to (Big)Integer can result in an unexpected difference of 1. Or even in Inf. (just rambling) -- Affijn, Ruud "Gewoon is een tijger."
