Numerics, NaNs, IEEE 754 and C99

[Grant Edwards]

On 2006-06-15, Nick Maclaren <nmm1 at cus.cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> Hence, the SAFE approach is to make the inverse of all zeros a
> NaN.

OK.  You're right.  I'm wrong about what my Python programs
should do.

In any case, that ship sailed.  

Maybe you can argue convincingly that theoretically your
approach is better than IEEE 754.  You're not going to get the
standard changed.  You're not going to get all of the computers
on the planet re-worked.  Making Python incompatible with IEEE
754 is a bad idea.

I might be able to come up with a convincing arguement that
driving on the right-hand side of the road is better than
driving on the left, but that doesn't make a good idea to do so
when in England, Japan, or Australia.

-- 
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