[Python-Dev] Math.sqrt(-1) -- nan or ValueError?

[Guido van Rossum]

I think it's better for the test to fail, to indicate that there's an
unresolved problem on the platform.

On 9/4/07, Hasan Diwan <hasan.diwan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 04/09/07, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> > Is this on OSX? That test has been failing (because on that platform
> > sqrt(-1) returns nan instead of raising ValueError) for years -- but
> > the test is only run when run in verbose mode, which mostly hides the
> > issue.  Have you read the comment for the test?
>
> Indeed, I am on OSX. Yes, I have read the comment for the test. Would the
> following pseudocode be an acceptable fix for the problem:
> if sys.platform == 'darwin' and math.sqrt(-1) == nan:
>       return
> else:
>   try:
>      x = math.sqrt(-1)
>   except ValueError:
>      pass
>   ...
> or should I just not bother?
> --
> Cheers,
>
> Hasan Diwan < hasan.diwan at gmail.com>


-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)