Re: [boost] New Boost.XInt Library, request preliminary review

Subject: Re: [boost] New Boost.XInt Library, request preliminary review
From: Chad Nelson (chad.thecomfychair_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-03-30 17:40:19

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On 03/30/2010 05:12 PM, Frank Mori Hess wrote:

>> I'm sorry you don't see the logic behind it. I do, and n1744 (the
>> "standardese" for the large-integer library proposal) specifies it, on
>> page two: "all integer operations which return an (temporary) integer
>> and many member operators may fail due to insufficient memory. Such
>> errors are reported as overflow_error exceptions (as available memory
>> defines the range of the integer class)."
> 
> Just to put my 2 cents in (on what is probably a minor issue after all), I
> find it conceptually silly for an "unlimited range integer" to throw an
> overflow_error.  Maybe it should be renamed "dynamicly unspecified range
> integer". 

Well, it's not called an "infinite range integer," after all. :-) Just
an unlimited one, because the library does not place any limits on it.
Only available memory, and the time needed to operate on something that
large, do.

> Boost isn't under any obligation to respect a design decision just 
> because it's in a standard proposal.

Certainly. But that (and n1692) are what XInt's interface is modeled
after, so it does.
- -- 
Chad Nelson
Oak Circle Software, Inc.
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