number crunching

[chu@server.cs.jhu.edu]

   Sender: moon@cambridge.apple.com
   Date: Mon, 05 Oct 92 16:42:21 EDT
   From: moon@cambridge.apple.com (David A. Moon)

	...

   I think this ought to be regarded as an extension, rather than something that 
   is wrong with Dylan and needs to be fixed.  But then, my own opinion is that 
   the trig functions in chapter 14, complex numbers, and floating point numbers 
   should all be removed from the Dylan language.  Perhaps you and I are actually 
   in agreement there; my reasoning is that if one isn't going to do a serious 
   implementation of floating-point, one shouldn't do a half-baked job, instead 
   one should not even claim to try.

   That's just my own opinion, not Apple's.  But I wonder how other people on 
   this list feel.  I know most people who implement Unix C numerics libraries 
   don't agree with me at all: from what I've heard they evidently think a 
   half-baked job is fine.

	...

I was a bit startled upon seeing the above-mentioned numeric features
in the Dylan spec--my first inclination would be to leave them out
(and I'm a Common Lisp programmer!). What was the rationale for
including them?

Phil Chu
Graduate School, Computer Science
Johns Hopkins University
internet: chu@server.cs.jhu.edu