[swift-evolution] protocol-oriented integers (take 2)

[Jonathan Hull]

Shouldn’t “Number” be reserved for a foundation type similar to NSNumber?  Or would this protocol actually serve that purpose?

I was planning to ask for a value type similar to NSNumber in phase 2.  I built one for my own code (a struct around an enum which can be Int, Decimal, Rational, or Rational * π) and it is super useful for handling things like user input where the value could be an Integer or Float/Decimal, and I always want the highest precision until I ask for it in a particular form.  If it came in as an integer, I know I can present it as an integer, and vice versa with decimal numbers.

Sometimes it is nice to be able to say: “The user gave me a number” and not really care about the underlying representation...

Thanks,
Jon



> On Jan 27, 2017, at 4:50 PM, Max Moiseev via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> Renaming Arithmetic to Number (and having SignedNumber) might actually end up being a win, since we need to provide SignedNumber to maintain source code compatibility anyway.
> 
>> On Jan 27, 2017, at 8:34 AM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> I'd always just assumed that Arithmetic was chosen so that SignedArithmetic wouldn't clash with the old SignedNumber. If that's not an issue, definitely agree that Number is the superior name.
>> On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 08:30 T.J. Usiyan via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
>> Oh, I misread the arrows in that diagram and this makes much more sense now.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 9:14 AM, Stephen Canon <scanon at apple.com <mailto:scanon at apple.com>> wrote:
>> The bitwise stuff isn't on ArithMETic | ARITHmetic | Number | whatever.
>> 
>>> On Jan 27, 2017, at 9:13 AM, T.J. Usiyan via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Regarding `Number` or `Numeric`: Does everything in Arithmetic apply to complex numbers and do we want it to? The bitwise stuff is where I think that there might be a mismatch.
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 2:26 PM, Dave Abrahams via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> on Sun Jan 15 2017, Stephen Canon <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> > Responding to the thread in general here, not so much any specific email:
>>> >
>>> > “Arithmetic” at present is not a mathematically-precise concept, and
>>> > it may be a mistake to make it be one[1]; it’s a
>>> > mathematically-slightly-fuzzy “number” protocol.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> In that case, should we consider renaming it to “Numeric” or even
>>> “Number?”  That would at least remove the question about how to
>>> pronounce it.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> -Dave
>>> 
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