Obsolesence of <>

[Jose' Sebrosa]

s713221 at student.gu.edu.au wrote:
> 
> > "Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > | Sorry, you're behind the times:
> > |
> > | Python 2.1 (#15, Apr 16 2001, 18:25:49) [MSC 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
> > | Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> > | Alternative ReadLine 1.1 -- Copyright 2001, Chris Gonnerman
> > | >>> x=2+3j
> > | >>> y=5+8j
> > | >>> x<y
> > | Traceback (most recent call last):
> > |   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> > | TypeError: cannot compare complex numbers using <, <=, >, >=
> 
> I haven't checked the PEP's (I'm down to 4 h on my uni network account,
> so I'm being conservative), but I'd hasard a guess this is because
> there's several ways to compare complex numbers. 5 + 8j is obviously
> larger than 2 + 3j because both the real and imaginary values are
> larger, but what about x = 2 + 3j and y = 5 + 1j where one has a larger
> real value and another has a larger imaginary value?
> Do you take y to be larger than x because |y| is larger than |x|? What
> if you've got two values that have the same |z| but different theta
> angles? Eg. x = 2 + 3j and y = 3 + 2j?

As far as I remember from my first subject on Calculus or so, the set of
Complex Numbers has *not* the property of being ordered. So, from the
mathematical point of view, it makes no sense to ask questions like "which of
two given complex numbers is smaller".

Sebrosa