Re: Indices starting from non-1 (Was: Killa: a scripting language ...)

[joao lobato <btnfdp.lobato@...>]

On Feb 28, 2013 10:41 PM, "Christopher Berardi" <cberardi@natoufa.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 12:35:55PM -0200, Jorge wrote:
> > On 02/28/2013 06:35 AM, Egor Skriptunoff wrote:
> > >On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 8:06 AM, Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>x={}
> > >>pi=math.pi
> > >>for k=pi,20 do x[k]=k end
> > >>print('{'..table.concat(x)..'}') --> {}
> > >>print('{'..table.concat(x,',',pi,pi+5)..'}') --> ERROR
> > >
> > >Very nice example!
> > >But anyway, I'm against adding "integer" data type to Lua. )))
> > >
> >
> > Wait, that's no PI!
> >
> > An idea for a project: replace the fp in Luas number for a pair of
> > integers, a and b, representing the fraction a/b. Define operations
> > accordingly, and modify the parser.
> >
> > Jorge
> >
>
> So shall we ignore all the irrational numbers? No PI, sqrt(2), etc.?
>
> I would welcome distinct number types (e.g., real, integer). But, if we must
> use a single number type I would like it to work in the following manner. A
> single number type would be comprised of 3 different types (C union?). If the
> number can be represented as an integer, then it is an integer type. If the
> number cannot be represented as an integer, then it is a real/double type. If
> the number is too big for either an integer or a double, then it it a bignum
> (i.e., arbitrary precision) type. From the lua programmers point of view, there
> is only a single number type and the determination of what type of number it is
> (e.g., integer, double, bignum) would be the responsibility of the VM as well
> as the proper working of the operators (e.g., +,-,*,/,etc.) Though, I don't
> know how easy or simple that would be implemented?
>
> --
> Christopher Berardi
> May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
>

Could someone give me some pointers as to why languages "standardized" on floating point math?