Re: [boost] math values

From: Kevin Lynch (krlynch_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-09-27 09:58:01

Jason D Schmidt wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> Not too long ago, I asked people on this list if anyone was interested in
> having math & physics values incorporated into Boost.  Some people
> sounded interested, so here's what I'm proposing:
> > 
> Does anyone have any thoughts on the general design I've proposed above
> or anything else?
> 
> Jason Schmidt

We've been over this territory, with not much success in coming to final 
agreement on anything, a few times over the past year or so.  Before you 
go off and spend lots of time implementing something only to have it 
completely shot to bits by this group, I'd suggest you go back and take 
a look at the threads from last October and November (if you haven't 
already), with names like:

SIUnits and Quantity Library Concerns
and
Math Functions
and
Math Constants
and
LWG Reaction: <cstdint>
and
Optimized Numeric Cast

There's lots of good stuff in those threads that you'll have to take 
into account in writing and proposing anything if you hope to have your 
design survive first contact with reviewers  :-)  In particular, your 
suggested framework for constants has already been proposed and shot 
down because it isn't user extensible and it doesn't conform to standard 
notational practice in the scientific programming community (parentheses 
are a real sticking point for some reason).  You might consider taking a 
look at implementing the framework suggested by Michael Kenniston in his 
email of November 24, 2001.  Sorry I don't have a link.... hope that's 
enough to help you find it.

Moving the math functions and constants into a generic, extensible 
framework that doesn't preclude efficiency and satisfies the needs of 
users is something that has consumed lots of bandwidth here, and turns 
out to be quite a bit more involved and difficult that I had 
anticipated.  Hopefully, you can solve some of the issues that have 
plagued the discussion to date.

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