Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.earthlink.com!news.earthlink.com.POSTED!not-for-mail
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2011 10:56:17 -0500
Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2011 08:56:13 -0700
From: Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.2; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20110624 Thunderbird/5.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Arithmetic overflow checking
References: <015aeb15-57db-48ab-9cd4-77f8448b632f@w24g2000yqw.googlegroups.com> <2rydnez7l-H5BYnTnZ2dnUVZ_vGdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <ivoiap$gru$1@dont-email.me> <drmdnTkz1raR1b3TnZ2dnUVZ_q-dnZ2d@earthlink.com> <ivr43p$7cq$1@dont-email.me> <4e278a67$0$309$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <1SSVp.69032$_I7.18660@newsfe08.iad> <j08v14$brk$1@speranza.aioe.org> <slrnj2g735.6gl.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <4e2892f1$0$309$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <heOdnWF5kt-7MrXTnZ2dnUVZ_u2dnZ2d@earthlink.com> <slrnj2jd39.6gl.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <1f3f067f-1753-4f6b-876d-19f92059d9b8@e20g2000prf.googlegroups.com> <slrnj2k168.6gl.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> <qfadnTTv37FXkbfTnZ2dnUVZ_qWdnZ2d@earthlink.com> <slrnj2mak5.6gl.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at>
In-Reply-To: <slrnj2mak5.6gl.avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID: <R7-dnWhMlr4_3bHTnZ2dnUVZ_gWdnZ2d@earthlink.com>
Lines: 35
X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: 70.230.200.239
X-Trace: sv3-SMYyn64bDWbw3QkECN+d1j4e7+ADSiUZ4Dv9ku7Zx2mJ85zWMfO0uokk91VKER5hNt4kFJ/LQxRg62K!t8+7ri0hk/ag0ScbCHUoxqz2i7FlVgoGju/uQ3Nm+GMj1PDwSMreNY7l3+xyS62RHw7alt/+TJyI!3Zyh5CKU9I+mETrkg2YkDraizkPEbZAF50p4ya+grmsRymY=
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
X-Postfilter: 1.3.40
X-Original-Bytes: 3667
Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:6506

On 7/23/2011 1:09 PM, Andreas Leitgeb wrote:
> Patricia Shanahan<pats@acm.org>  wrote:
>> On 7/22/2011 4:16 PM, Andreas Leitgeb wrote:
>>> lewbloch<lewbloch@gmail.com>   wrote:
>>>> On Jul 22, 10:33 am, Andreas Leitgeb<a...@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> Patricia Shanahan<p...@acm.org>   wrote:
>>>>> [about lack of operator overloading for non-primitive arithmetic types]
>>>>>> The problem is not just the keystrokes for typing the expressions.
>>>>>> It is very important to be able to check that a lengthy expression
>>>>>> in a program is a correct translation of the corresponding expression,
>>>>>> in mathematical notation, in a textbook or paper.
>>>>> Lew?
>>>> Yes?
>>> So here are arguments (admittedly not mine) that include ("... not just...")
>>> but also go beyond the complaint about the number of keystrokes. I was just
>>> wondering, if you had any expert-opinion about them, that you'd care to share.
>> Some of the context has been dropped in editing. My remarks were
>> specific to the complex, in every sense of the word, expressions I've
>> seen in scientific and engineering programs.
>
> You meant only complex expressions on complex numbers?  (Is that every sense
> of "complex", or did I even miss some more?)
> If so, then sorry, I obviously understood your remarks as more general than they
> were.  It's not my intention to misquote contexts and all that. I apologize
> if it happened.
>

No problem. My practical experience of cases in which I think
representing expressions in method calls would be disastrous is
complicated expressions in complex numbers. It seems reasonable to me
that it might also be a problem e.g. for a rational type or for
BigDecimal, but I don't have direct observations to back that up.

Patricia