On Fri, 2 Apr 2010, Chad Nelson wrote:
On 04/02/2010 02:32 PM, Jeffrey Hellrung wrote:
What are the arguments against a signed zero?
That there's no need for it in an integer library. I may have gotten some things wrong, but I don't think anyone refuted that part. Quoting from my earlier message on the subject:
- ----------------8<---------------- Forgive any mathematical terminology errors, I'm only an armchair mathematician. But in the domain of natural numbers, zero, by definition, has no sign. It's neither positive nor negative (or if you prefer, it's both). Signed zero seems to be an invention of computer science, where it represents a fraction that's so small that the inexact computer representation is indistinguishable from zero, but where the number itself isn't necessarily true zero. - ----------------8<----------------
As such, there's no real need for it in XInt.
I tend to agree. In a "real" valued float, there are cases where you want to distinguish a value approaching 0 from the positive or negative. With integers, there are no infinitesimals and hence no need for a distinction. The integer zero is simply the only integer between +1 and -1; it also happens to be the additive identity, and there is no other (hence -0 has no meaning). - Daniel