Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #6537

Re: Arithmetic overflow checking

Date	2011-07-25 09:09 -0700
From	Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject	Re: Arithmetic overflow checking
References	(16 earlier) <j0g1i4$nus$1@speranza.aioe.org> <ueidnUcxuMPT2LHTnZ2dnUVZ_uKdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <j0j5ie$v55$1@speranza.aioe.org> <slrnj2qjgv.6gl.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <j0k14r$7rr$1@speranza.aioe.org>
Message-ID	<Nb2dnW_mPtWqCLDTnZ2dnUVZ_qudnZ2d@earthlink.com> (permalink)

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On 7/25/2011 8:12 AM, Henderson wrote:
> On 25/07/2011 7:06 AM, Andreas Leitgeb wrote:
...
>> Simple example: what would be the sum of
>> BigInteger("123456789012345678901234567890123456789012") and some
>> Complex( 0.0 , Math.PI )?
>
> Ideally, it would be a Complex with bignum components, preserving
> precision.

Treat x+y as x.plus(y). Apply the usual compile and run time method
invocation rules. The type of the result of x+y is the return type of
x.plus(y). Report the usual errors.

That strategy would require some explicit conversions but is much
clearer than anything that attempts inference for user-defined
arithmetic types beyond the method invocation conversions.

It leaves the choice of the return type to the writers of the classes
and the code using them, where it should be for generality.

> Until some enterprising mathematician thinks up something that can be
> added and multiplied, but has no sensible correspondence to any
> subset of any kind of vectors of real numbers ...

How about the symmetries of a square? Or, for that matter, any arbitrary
group? If you have a group, you have addition.

At one level, every practical type is limited to values that can be
represented by finite bit strings, and those bit strings can all be
mapped to natural numbers.

The key question is how "sensible" is the correspondence. We already
have some awkwardness in making Double implement Comparable and extend
Number, because Double can have Not-a-Number values. Double has to
pretend NaNs are numbers in some Comparable and Number contexts, even
though their whole point is to represent the lack of a numerical result.

Patricia

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Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-07-19 20:54 -0400
  Re: Arithmetic overflow checking markspace <-@.> - 2011-07-19 18:07 -0700
    Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-07-19 21:31 -0400
      Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-07-20 07:36 -0300
        Re: Arithmetic overflow checking RedGrittyBrick <RedGrittyBrick@spamweary.invalid> - 2011-07-20 11:58 +0100
          Re: Arithmetic overflow checking lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-07-20 09:51 -0700
            Re: Arithmetic overflow checking RedGrittyBrick <RedGrittyBrick@spamweary.invalid> - 2011-07-21 12:11 +0100
              Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-07-21 12:43 +0000
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Tom McGlynn <taqmcglynn@googlemail.com> - 2011-07-21 07:15 -0700
              Re: Arithmetic overflow checking lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-07-21 07:35 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-07-21 15:38 +0000
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-07-21 09:03 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-07-21 12:00 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-07-22 17:16 +0000
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking David Lamb <dalamb@cs.queensu.ca> - 2011-07-23 11:28 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-07-23 21:03 +0000
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Henderson <h1@g1.f1> - 2011-07-23 22:55 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-24 09:16 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking markspace <-@.> - 2011-07-24 10:40 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-24 10:54 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking markspace <-@.> - 2011-07-24 11:09 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-24 12:53 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking markspace <-@.> - 2011-07-24 15:15 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-24 15:41 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Henderson <h1@g1.f1> - 2011-07-25 03:21 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-25 00:56 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-07-25 07:03 -0300
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Thomas Richter <thor@math.tu-berlin.de> - 2011-07-26 09:43 +0200
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-07-25 11:06 +0000
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Henderson <h1@g1.f1> - 2011-07-25 11:12 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-25 09:09 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-25 09:30 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking David Lamb <dalamb@cs.queensu.ca> - 2011-07-25 13:33 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2011-07-26 03:04 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-07-26 03:28 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Henderson <h1@g1.f1> - 2011-07-26 04:53 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-07-26 11:35 -0400
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-26 10:48 -0700
                Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-07-21 17:00 -0400
        Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-07-20 19:50 -0400
          Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-07-20 23:21 -0300
            Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-07-21 12:52 +0000
              Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Henderson <h1@g1.f1> - 2011-07-21 15:58 -0400
            Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-07-21 17:06 -0400
      Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-07-20 14:35 -0700
        Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-07-20 18:22 -0400
          Re: Arithmetic overflow checking Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-07-21 14:54 -0700

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