That's why I suggest (once Complex be loaded) a flag something like Smalltalk complexResultsOn and its counterpart to turn off be used instead.


Em 14/08/2009 20:53, John McIntosh < johnmci@smalltalkconsulting.com > escreveu:

Yes but we usually don't do explicit casting Like 2 asFloat * 3.0
We could but where does the implicit type conversion lie?


On 8/14/09, Schwab,Wilhelm K wrote:
> John,
>
> If I may be so presumptuous, the answer is to have people use #asComplex
> when they want complex results. -2 sqrt throws an error; -2 asComplex sqrt
> gives the complex (imaginary) result. Then we break no old code, we offer
> useful new features with minimal effort required to invoke them.
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr
> [mailto:pharo-project-bounces@lists.gforge.inria.fr] On Behalf Of John M
> McIntosh
> Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 4:55 PM
> To: Pharo-project@lists.gforge.inria .fr
> Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] Complex number support discussion
>
>
> On 14-Aug-09, at 1:04 PM, Schwab,Wilhelm K wrote:
>
>> John,
>>
>> That is not far from the eveolving conscensous opinion - I think we
>> can indeed claim to have a collective desire to leave integers and
>> floats as they are. One concern I have about your suggestion is what
>> happens when the user loads the complex package? Does existing code
>> break? It would given Ken's proposal. There are alternatives, and
>> they are discussed in this fairly extensive thread.
>>
>> Besides, someone wanting complex numbers will look for and load a
>> package to support them, as long as it is good code. Complex is fine
>> as far as it goes; some FFI magic to benefit from GSL functionality
>> would be nice. We should also have an analog to FloatArray that has
>> complex entries; again, a wrapper onto GSL would be a nice addition.
>>
>> I have no power over Ken; he can build what he wants. I would like to
>> see his energy directed toward creating something we can all use. I
>> suggest a layered proposal on the wiki and up or down votes on what
>> becomes part of Pharo. If the vote(s) split, we have benevolent
>> dictators to sort it out.
>>
>> Bill
>
> Ah, yes well I think I lost the 0.2 = (1/2) argument, so anything goes.
>
> I think the choice is either numbers + complex work as expected, or you just
> offer number then offer to load the complex logic as soon as someone wants
> -2 sqrt.
>
> Obviously the problem here is that for a vast range of programmers if you
> offer up -2 sqrt by default and it does not throw an excepti on they will be
> confused. Some of them likely have NO idea what a complex number is.
>
> Random thoughts.
>
> No-doubt there are abuses of math to string where people assume you have an
> integer like thing versus a complex number string.
>
>
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