On Sun, 01 May 2011 10:28:05 -0400, Vincent Manis <vmanis@telus.net> wrote:

> I don't understand this. Polar and rectangular are external
> representations, are they not?  Does a Scheme implementation have to
> flag complex numbers by their representation? What happens when you mix
> the two kinds of numbers?

It does not have to, a Scheme implementation can choose any valid
representation for the number when it wants to convert an internal
representation to an external one, such as what happens with `write' and
`number->string'. So, the behavior of using the complex notation all the
time instead of the polar is legal. On the other hand, an implementation
could track these things and use the polar representation if it so desired.

	Aaron W. Hsu

--
Programming is just another word for the lost art of thinking.

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