Re: [boost] Quantity libraries: SIunits

From: George A. Heintzelman (georgeh_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-09-13 08:14:17

> 
> >
> > X-eGroups-From: wb_at_[hidden] (Walter Brown)
> >
> > Adding new quantities, too, is useful.  However, you are suggesting
> > adding a new quantity that requires adding a new "dimension" first.  I
> > understand what you are proposing, but the International System of
> > Units does not provide any guidance in this direction. 
> >
> 
> I certainly like the adherance to standards.  Fruther the SI standards
> have been fairly well thought out.  So it does make sense to have a
> pure SI-units library.  I guess I'm argueing that it also makes sense
> to have a user-defined-units library.  

Dean,

Thank you for saying what I've been groping at. I think this is 
ultimately the conclusion I was coming to, and as you say the question 
is the organization of the functionality. As best I can see, there are 
three possibilities: two separate libraries, one library built on 
another, or one integrated library. That is a difficult question, but I 
think that there will be enough duplicated functionality -- the basic 
definition of commensuration and mixing of units in particular -- that 
I don't see the first option as terribly inviting.

In any event, I entirely agree that pure SI-units functionality is 
definitely useful to those of us working in such domains; for those of 
us outside those domains, there is work to be done with the existing 
library as a guiding light.

George Heintzelman
georgeh_at_[hidden]