On Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 9:36 PM Richard Damon <rich...@damon-family.org> wrote:
> > NaN may be an instance of the abstract type Number, but is isn't a > mathematical number. Yes, floating point numbers are not pure-math Reals. Not even Rationals. They are a CS construct that is very useful for computer programs that very approximately resemble Rationals. One of the necessary details in that approximation is that NaN is a special "computer number." You get it as a result of some operations where other answers aren't possible in the system. Inf is the same way. It's not a Rational. It's also not omega-zero in set theory. It's just a thing the system does to be "pretty good" more of the time. They are all "numbers." ... or if you insist: no floating point number is a "number." (not a closed field, operations not transitive, blah blah) Also, YAML is NOT a markup language, but a data serialization format. It in > fact started as Yet Another Markup Language, but when they realized that > what they were designing wasn't really a mark up language... I communicated with Clark Evans in 2001 and wrote about the format near then. Both funny acronyms are equally old. YAML is a way of *marking up* structured data. I create YAML much more in my text editor by hand than by serializing in-memory objects. You are free to have a personal definition of the loose concept "markup language" the excludes YAML. Also GNU isn't Unix, as Unix is a trademarked name for a specific set of > operating systems. GNU produced Linux, which is a mostly work-alike > operating system. Its sort of like saying Scotties isn't a Kleenex (Both > brands of facial tissues). > Yes, it's like arguing at great length that Scotties isn't Kleenex. Or that I don't make a Xerox copy on my Ricoh brand printer. Pedantically you are correct. FWIW, I am unusual in almost never using genericized brand names, which is party of why I sound funny to everyone else :-).
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