Re: wishes

[Jürgen Kahrs]

address@hidden wrote:

> Could you implement e.g. a min() and max() function. Ideally these should
> accept arbitrary
> numbers of input arguments. I.e.
> 
> min($1, $2)
> min($1, $3, $4, $5)
> 
> and so on should be possible.

Yes, min() and max() are functions that I also need
again and again. The same is true for abs(), sgn()
and some rounding functions.

The current trend towards new functions in gawk goes
like this: Encapsulate them, either in a library of
scripts (use the @include mechanism of igawk), or
write your own gawk extension. Gawk extensions are a
mechanism for dynamic loading of libraries. Only a
very few are available at the moment.

For use in my own scripts, I implemented a Gawk extension
for using the MPFR library:

  http://www.mpfr.org/

Multiple precision arithmetic may be a bit of an
overkill if it is just min() and max() that you need.
On the other hand, this MPFR library is already
available with the xgawk distribution:

  http://directory.fsf.org/xgawk.html


> P.S. I wonder if anybody will ever read this mail?

You only have to read this newsgroup to find out.