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bear wrote:
On Sat, 18 Jun 2005, William D Clinger wrote:
2. The proposed 1/0 and -1/0 syntax for infinities has two related problems: it looks like these things are exact, and allowing this syntax will require a more complicated rule for deciding whether a numeric literal is exact or inexact.3. The +inf.0 and -inf.0 syntax is already used by several implementations, which agreed to standardize upon it several years ago, before the SRFI process began. Th +inf.0 and -inf.0 syntaxes (and +nan.0) also appear within The Revised R6RS Status Report of October 2004, which is online at www.schemers.org.I agree with this, by the way: I'd much rather see +inf.0 and -inf.0 than 1/0 and -1/0. To me the connotations are different: +inf.0 means "numeric overflow:" 1/0 means "illegal operation." Or, mathematically, +inf.0 seems to mean "we can't tell how big this is, and it may be infinite" and 1/0 means "this is, exactly and absolutely, a first-order infinity." I find +inf.0 and -inf.0 seem to me to express the ideas that are more in line with the way they are used in computer programs. Besides, they are already used by more implementations than 1/0 and -1/0.
I too agree. Due to my day job, as soon as I see 1/0 I begin to look for the red pencil. -- Jens Axel Søgaard