Re: [boost] [Math/nextafter] A question of naming functions...

From: John Maddock (john_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-05-05 06:48:22

So, it looks like so far we have:

next(val)
prior(val)

and either of

representation_distance(a, b);
discrete_distance(a, b);

Whilst I'm normally all in favour of 
"long_meaningful_names_with_underscores", next() and prior() do look OK to 
me: especially so long as they're in namespace boost::math.

Like Paul, I'm still looking for the right "killer name" for the *_distance 
function, I quite like "maddock_metric" but I doubt anyone will know what 
that means :-)

Given that this function is inherently related to the "units in the last 
place" metric, I wonder if we can compose a name from that?

Maybe extending the API slightly how about:

T upl_distance(T, T);      // "representation distance"
T relative_distance(T, T); // AKA relative error.
T ulp(T);                  // distance between arg and next(arg)

Thoughts?

Thanks, John.