RE: [boost] Re: proposal: safe arithmetic class

From: Bjorn.Karlsson_at_[hidden]
Date: 2003-01-16 10:56:30

> From: David Abrahams [mailto:dave_at_[hidden]]
> 
> The huge advantage appears when you start looking at arithmetic
> expressions.  The result of
> 
> if (t < u)
> {
>     x = y + z * w;
> }
> 
> could be a lot more predictable if we were working with types that
> didn't perform implicit lossy conversions.

In some cases, sure. But without some exceptionally creative use of
expression templates, you'd have a situation where the ordering of variables
determine the validity of the expression - and even then, any extra
precision that the implementation uses (e.g. for floating point arithmetic)
would probably be lost (and if it's not lost, predictability will suffer).

Bjorn