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Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 11:00:15 -0700
From: Bruce McKenzie <bruce@trwlasd.com>
Subject: Re: Math classes needed ?
To: tuparev@EMBL-Heidelberg.de
Cc: misckit@byu.edu
Message-Id: <199406291800.AA00694@trwlasd.com>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
> > I submitted a MiscRtMatrix to Don and he said he has to
> write some math object > in the future. I might also need a
> vector, complex or matrix class. What > about you. Any ideas ? >
> > Any API suggestions ? Do we need a INT, REAL, etc. number ?
> Maybe Class > Irational could return e, and pi :-) Well who
> knows...
>NOOOOO! No Int, Real,Double, Complex,
> WhatSoEverNumber classes, please. It should be possible to
> find more intelligent and elegant way for solving this
> problem (yes, it's much easier to write it in c++ or ADA, but
> don't forget that Mathematica was written in plain C).
>
I disagree. There are (I believe...) C++ libraries that solve this hierarchy design issue, and I'm sure that at least one SmallTalk implementation has the hierarchy set up.
These ought to be food for (design) thought.
I think that it is appropriate to have Int, Double, etc. classes. We just wrestled with the issue of getting a [perform:] to return a double. Look, just because you have the classes, you don't have to use them. Heck, I still use char* (SOMETIMES), even though MiscString is available.
I'm kind of surprised that NeXT did not add them in to the Foundation classes. Yes, they would have then had to floss their API again, but I can make an argument for it.
Bruce
---
Bruce McKenzie (spuds@netcom.com, NeXTMail welcome)
Vice President & Chief Scientist
Atlas Software Ventures, Inc.
PO Box 1299, Santa Clara, CA 95052-1299
800/278-9909 (ASV-9909)
*** Software Development, specializing in NEXTSTEP ***