Re: [boost] [xint] Design Question

Subject: Re: [boost] [xint] Design Question
From: OvermindDL1 (overminddl1_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-07-09 02:27:29

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Chad Nelson
<chad.thecomfychair_at_[hidden]> wrote:
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> On 06/16/2010 09:32 PM, Scott McMurray wrote:
>
>>> Can anyone think of a potential reason for options C or D? Or a reason
>>> to prefer option B? Or maybe come up with a different idea entirely?
>>
>> How about this combo of B, C, and D:
>> - if !i, --i and i-- both throw exceptions.
>> - a - b doesn't compile for non-fixed length
>> - provide a separate absdiff(a, b) function
>
> Working on this option now. After looking at it, removing the binary
> operator- seems rather harsh... if you know that a number is larger than
> what you're subtracting from it, it would just be irritating. But I'll
> definitely add the absdiff function (maybe named "difference"?), then
> the developer using the library can decide which to use for himself.

Why not just go the simple route and define it as "undefined
behaviour", then just pretend they will never get a negative number
and let your math functions choke on it as they wish, making invalid
values, dividing by zero, whatever, it is "undefined behaviour" after
all.