I would very much like to see a good complex number package. One thing I do not want to see is -1 sqrt return a complex - it should signal an error. -1 asComplex sqrt will return a complex representing i. In short, we should not coerce integers or floats to complex numbers; one can explicitly do the conversion, which then requests the use of arithmetic and elementary functions for complex numbers. ________________________________________ From: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr [pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr] On Behalf Of Stéphane Ducasse [stephane.ducasse@inria.fr] Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 2:52 PM To: Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria.fr Cc: The general-purpose Squeak developers list Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] Migrating Complex in a separate package Hi nicolas I would like to have a nice complex package. Do you remember the lengthly discussion that we got in pharo two years ago because the old implementation was not good. I still have the code somewhere. Now if you take the lead on that issue we will follow you. Stef
Hi,
Facts: - Complex is present in Squeak trunk image but not used in Kernel - Complex is absent from Pharo image. This breaks portability of some packages.
I suggest putting Complex in its own package in squeaksource. This can work for Pharo alone. I also suggest to optionally remove Squeak.Complex from trunk.
There are then other choices: - the name of the package : can be Complex or Math-Complex (I already put a few Math-* in squeak source...) - the name of the class can be Complex or ComplexNumber Specifically I don't like isComplex, many objects could respond true because complicated; isComplexNumber is much more explicit. We could also think of having complex expressions in a symbolic algebra, and isComplexNumber would be true only for a literal value..
What I could eventually do is publish an old Complex in package Complex for backard compatibility and an updated ComplexNumber in a Math-Complex package...
How many of you use Complex ? What do you think of these proposals ?
Nicolas