Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again)

From	Roy Smith <roy@panix.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Subject	Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again)
Date	2013-10-16 08:21 -0400
Organization	PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
Message-ID	<roy-A4DC54.08213316102013@news.panix.com> (permalink)
References	<mailman.937.1381411535.18130.python-list@python.org> <525753ee$0$29984$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <l3l850$2aq$1@dont-email.me>

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In article <l3l850$2aq$1@dont-email.me>, John Nagle <nagle@animats.com> 
wrote:

> Then upgrade to 3D.  You can represent latitude and longitude
> as a 3-element unit vector.  (GPS systems do this; latitude and
> longitude are only generated at the end, for output.)

And annoyingly so.  Somebody I know was building a tracking system based 
on a PIC chip and a Trimble GPS module.  The danged thing would only 
give him lat/long, which he then had to devote a sizable chunk of his 
very limited CPU power to converting into some more useful coordinate 
system.  Internally, the GPS module was certainly working in something 
more useful than lat/long, but didn't expose that.

I've done similar math when doing some molecular modeling.  Atoms are 
free to rotate in 3-space around the inter-atomic bonds.  You don't want 
to have to worry about dividing by zero just because some rotation angle 
is 0 or 90 or some other magic number.

Thread

Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 00:25 +1100
  Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-10-10 14:12 +0000
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 01:20 +1100
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2013-10-10 16:54 +0000
        Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Christian Gollwitzer <auriocus@gmx.de> - 2013-10-10 21:08 +0200
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) William Ray Wing <wrw@mac.com> - 2013-10-10 11:36 -0400
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2013-10-10 10:39 -0700
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-10-10 20:13 -0400
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 17:01 +1100
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2013-10-11 12:21 +0100
  Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-10-11 01:27 +0000
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 20:35 +1100
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Oscar Benjamin <oscar.j.benjamin@gmail.com> - 2013-10-11 12:30 +0100
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi> - 2013-10-11 15:11 +0300
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-10-11 10:05 -0400
        Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-10-11 17:03 +0000
        Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> - 2013-10-11 13:00 -0400
    Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) John Nagle <nagle@animats.com> - 2013-10-15 22:27 -0700
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-10-16 08:21 -0400
      Re: Complex literals (was Re: I am never going to complain about Python again) Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-10-16 13:22 -0400

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