My comments Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (19 Oct 2005 18:37 UTC)
Re: My comments Bradd W. Szonye (19 Oct 2005 19:17 UTC)
Re: My comments Thomas Bushnell BSG (19 Oct 2005 19:44 UTC)
Re: My comments Bradd W. Szonye (19 Oct 2005 19:55 UTC)
Re: My comments Thomas Bushnell BSG (19 Oct 2005 20:11 UTC)
Re: My comments John.Cowan (19 Oct 2005 20:10 UTC)
Re: My comments Thomas Bushnell BSG (19 Oct 2005 20:13 UTC)
Re: My comments Bradd W. Szonye (19 Oct 2005 20:25 UTC)
Re: My comments Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (19 Oct 2005 20:23 UTC)
Re: My comments Bradd W. Szonye (19 Oct 2005 20:36 UTC)
Re: My comments Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (19 Oct 2005 21:36 UTC)
Re: My comments Bradd W. Szonye (19 Oct 2005 21:42 UTC)
Re: My comments Bradd W. Szonye (19 Oct 2005 22:08 UTC)
Exactness (was Re: My comments) bear (20 Oct 2005 01:50 UTC)
Re: Exactness Thomas Bushnell BSG (20 Oct 2005 03:45 UTC)
Re: Exactness Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (20 Oct 2005 09:13 UTC)
Re: Exactness Bradd W. Szonye (20 Oct 2005 20:15 UTC)
Re: Exactness bear (20 Oct 2005 22:09 UTC)
Re: Exactness Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (21 Oct 2005 02:08 UTC)
Re: Exactness Thomas Bushnell BSG (21 Oct 2005 03:05 UTC)
Re: Exactness Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (21 Oct 2005 08:15 UTC)
Re: Exactness Thomas Bushnell BSG (21 Oct 2005 18:38 UTC)
Re: Exactness Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (21 Oct 2005 20:12 UTC)
Re: Exactness Thomas Bushnell BSG (21 Oct 2005 20:29 UTC)
Re: Exactness Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (21 Oct 2005 20:38 UTC)
Re: Exactness Thomas Bushnell BSG (21 Oct 2005 20:44 UTC)
Re: Exactness Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (21 Oct 2005 21:20 UTC)
Re: Exactness Thomas Bushnell BSG (21 Oct 2005 21:44 UTC)
Re: Exactness Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (21 Oct 2005 22:18 UTC)
Re: Exactness Thomas Bushnell BSG (21 Oct 2005 22:48 UTC)
Re: Exactness Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk (22 Oct 2005 00:34 UTC)
Re: Exactness Thomas Bushnell BSG (22 Oct 2005 01:02 UTC)
Re: Exactness Per Bothner (22 Oct 2005 00:59 UTC)

Re: My comments Marcin 'Qrczak' Kowalczyk 19 Oct 2005 20:23 UTC

"Bradd W. Szonye" <xxxxxx@szonye.com> writes:

>> I would reject the concept of inexact integers ....
>
> While they seem silly for small integers, inexact integers make
> sense for huge values. For example, people often round huge integers
> to the nearest million or billion.

R5RS tries to make exactness an independent property from the value.
IMHO it goes too far in allowing inexact arguments to certain
operations.

Let's consider R5RS operations defined on integers which might be
inexact (I think these are all):
A. odd? even? integer->char
B. quotient remainder modulo
C. gcd lcm
and operations defined on rationals which also might be inexact:
D. numerator denominator

Operations from group A have ill-defined results when the accuracy
of the input is worse than 1. Operations from groups C and D have
ill-defined results when the inputs are not known exactly: the
slighthest inaccuracy in the input yields a totally different answer.
R5RS gives them too broad domain.

Operations from group B are well defined even for real numbers,
except for boundary cases. They are continuous on intervals.
R5RS gives them too narrow domain.

In no case "an integer number, known exactly or not" or "a rational
number, known exactly or not" is a sensible domain for an arithmetic
function.

--
   __("<         Marcin Kowalczyk
   \__/       xxxxxx@knm.org.pl
    ^^     http://qrnik.knm.org.pl/~qrczak/