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Issue REAL-NUMBER-TYPE Writeup

Issue:        REAL-NUMBER-TYPE

Forum: CLEANUP

References: Table 4-1.

Category: ADDITION

Edit history: 04-JAN-89, Version 1 by Bob Cassels, Don Sakahara, Kent Pitman,

and John Aspinall

08-JAN-89, Version 2 by Bob Cassels -- incorporate

Masinter's suggestion and make REAL a CLOS class

13-JAN-89, Version 3 by Cassels and Aspinall -- incorporate Marc LeBrun's

suggestions clarifying the relationship between CL

numeric type names and mathematical names

05-APR-89, Version 4 by Pitman (changes per X3J13)

Status: Accepted v3 Mar-89 by X3J13 (on a 12-3 vote) with

amendments. The proposal as amended is v4.

Problem Description:

There is no standard type specifier symbol for the CL type

'(OR RATIONAL FLOAT).

Proposal (REAL-NUMBER-TYPE:X3J13-MAR-89):

Make REAL be a CL data type:

p.13 "Numbers"

Add: The NUMBER data type encompasses all of these kinds of

numbers. For convenience, there are names for some

subclasses of numbers. @i[Integers] and @i[ratios] are of

type RATIONAL. @i[Rational numbers] and @[floating-point

numbers] are of type REAL. @i[Real numbers] and @i[complex

numbers] are of type NUMBER.

Although the names of these types were chosen with the

terminology of mathematics in mind, the correspondences

are not always exact. Integers and ratios model the

corresponding mathematical concepts directly. Numbers

of the FLOAT type may be used to approximate real

numbers, both rational and irrational. The REAL type

includes all Common Lisp numbers which represent

mathematical real numbers, though there are

mathematical real numbers (irrational numbers)

which do not have an exact Common Lisp representation.

Only REAL numbers may be ordered using the <, >, <=,

and >= functions.

Compatibility note: The Fortran standard defines the term

"real datum" to mean "a processor approximation to the value

of a real number." In practice the Fortran "basic real" type

is the floating-point data type Common Lisp calls

SINGLE-FLOAT. The Fortran "double precision" type is

Common Lisp's DOUBLE-FLOAT. The Pascal "real" data type is

an "implementation-defined subset of the real numbers." In

practice this is usually a floating-point type, often what

Common Lisp calls DOUBLE-FLOAT.

A translation of an algorithm written in Fortran or Pascal

which uses "real" data usually will use some appropriate

precision of Common Lisp's FLOAT type. Some algorithms may

gain accuracy and/or flexibility by using Common Lisp's

RATIONAL or REAL types instead.

p.33 "Overlap, Inclusion, and Disjointness of Types":

Remove: The types RATIONAL, FLOAT, and COMPLEX are pairwise

disjoint subtypes of NUMBER.

Rationale: It might be thought that INTEGER and RATIO ...

Rationale: It might be thought that FIXNUM and BIGNUM ...

Add: The types RATIONAL and FLOAT are pairwise disjoint subtypes

of REAL.

The types REAL and COMPLEX are pairwise disjoint subtypes

of NUMBER.

Rationale: It might be thought that FIXNUM and BIGNUM should

form an exhaustive partition of the type INTEGER, that INTEGER

and RATIO should form an exhaustive partition of RATIONAL,

that RATIONAL and FLOAT should form an exhaustive partition of

REAL, and that REAL and COMPLEX should form an exhaustive

partition of NUMBER. These are all purposely avoided in order

to permit compatible experimentation with extensions to the

Common Lisp number system, such as the idea of adding explicit

representations of infinity or of positive and negative infinity.

p.43 Table 4-1 "Standard Type Specifier Symbols"

Add: REAL

p.49 "Type Specifiers that Abbreviate"

Add: (REAL low high)

Denotes the set of real numbers between low and high. ...

[As with RATIONAL and FLOAT.]

Make REAL a built-in CLOS class.

Add a specific data type predicate REALP which tests for membership in

this type. [By analogy with NUMBERP.]

Test Case:

If a programmer wishes to test for "a number between 1 and 10", the

only current CL types would be '(or (rational 1 10) (float 1 10)) or

something like '(and numberp (not complexp) (satisfies range-1-10))

with (defun range-1-10 (real) (<= 1 real 10)). Both of these are

likely less efficient, and certainly less expressive than '(real 1 10).

Rationale:

Mathematics has a name for (OR RATIONAL FLOAT) -- it is "real".

This class is important because it is all the numbers which can be

ordered.

Throughout the "Numbers" chapter, the phrase "non-complex number" is

used.

MAX, MIN, p. 198 "The arguments may be any non-complex numbers."

CIS p. 207 "The argument ... may be any non-complex number."

Current Practice:

Probably nobody does this.

Cost to Implementors:

Some work is necessary to add this name. But since the underlying

type already exists the amount of work should be minimal.

Cost to Users:

Since this is an upward-compatible extension, it may be ignored by

users.

Cost of Non-Adoption:

Occasional inconvenience and/or inefficiency.

Benefits:

Mathematical clarity.

Ability to do CLOS method dispatch on the type.

Aesthetics:

As mentioned under "rationale," this would be a more concise way to

express a common programming idiom.

Discussion:

The name "non-complex number" is incorrect because future

implementations may wish to include numerical types which are neither

complex nor real. [e.g. pure imaginary numbers or quaternions]

The name "scalar" is incorrect because the mathematical concept of

scalar may indeed include complex numbers.

Fortran and Pascal use the name "real" to mean what CL calls

SINGLE-FLOAT. That should cause no significant problem, since a Lisp

program written using the type REAL will do mathematically what the

equivalent Fortran program would do. This is because Fortran's "real"

data-type is a subtype of the CL REAL type. The only differences

might be that the Lisp program could be less efficient and/or more

accurate.

A survey of several Fortran and Pascal books shows that the distinction

between INTEGER and REAL is that REAL numbers may have fractional

parts, while INTEGERs do not. Later discussions explain that REALs

cover a greater range. Much later discussions cover precision

considerations, over/underflow, etc. So the average Fortran or Pascal

programmer should be completely comfortable with the proposed Lisp

concept of REAL.


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