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: 2010-04-02 20:34:51

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On 04/02/2010 03:27 PM, DE wrote:

>> Arbitrary-precision integers. But it could sometimes be useful to have a
>> value representing infinity, just as it's sometimes useful to have one
>> representing Not-a-Number.
> 
> i agree with the presence of NaN
> and i agree that NaN should propagate when exceptions are blocked
> 
> but nobody convinced me so far of usefulness of infinities in an
> integer domain

I tried to come up with an example, but I couldn't think of anything
useful, or even contrived. I was considering it because Scott McMurray
pointed out that it would be useful for containers of intervals, and
that a NaN value wouldn't be sufficient there. I can see his argument,
but I'm not familiar with any use of intervals.

> as well as signed zero

We're still arguing that.

>> I can see some very limited uses for calculations with infinities,
>> mostly involving endpoints in a range.
>
> that seems very doubtful to me

I'm still struggling to see where it's necessary too. Most of those
"very limited uses" that I mentioned above would be in generic code, and
I can't for the life of me think of an example of them.
- -- 
Chad Nelson
Oak Circle Software, Inc.
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