[Scheme-reports] Mixed exactness in complex numbers? Peter Bex (23 Mar 2012 19:13 UTC)
Re: [Scheme-reports] Mixed exactness in complex numbers? Andrew Robbins (23 Mar 2012 19:48 UTC)

[Scheme-reports] Mixed exactness in complex numbers? Peter Bex 23 Mar 2012 19:13 UTC

Hi all,

The report occasionally mentions "an inexact complex number" or
"an exact complex number".  Does this imply that there's no such
thing as a complex number of mixed exactness?

Gambit, for example, allows this: 1/2+0.5i
Other Schemes I've looked at (not that many, though) return a
normalised complex number with both real and imaginary parts
converted to inexact.

As far as I can see, this only has impact on the behavior of
eqv?, which needs to check that the exactness of both parts
match and then compare both parts with the regular "=" procedure.
I'm not sure about the usefulness of this (but I'm not convinced
it's useless, either)

Am I missing anything?

Cheers,
Peter
--
http://sjamaan.ath.cx
--
"The process of preparing programs for a digital computer
 is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically
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 experience much like composing poetry or music."
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