[Chicken-janitors] #674: ##sys#string->number gets called without prefixes in the reader

[Chicken Trac]

#674: ##sys#string->number gets called without prefixes in the reader
-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  sjamaan          |       Owner:  felix
     Type:  defect           |      Status:  new  
 Priority:  major            |   Milestone:  4.8.0
Component:  core libraries   |     Version:  4.7.x
 Keywords:  reader, numbers  |  
-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------
 Chicken core's reader calls ##sys#string->number on the number without the
 radix&exactness prefix.

 This causes issues when for example you're reading something like the
 following: "#e1e500".  The reader passes on "1.0e500" and then converts it
 to an exact number using inexact->exact, but that fails because flonums
 can't represent a number that large.  I know it's  probably a bit of an
 edge case, but this is more convenient input syntax than typing a 1
 followed by 500 zeroes, which AFAIK is the only other way to enter an
 exact number like that.

 Another approach would be to do like I now do in numbers trunk itself;
 string->number first analyses the prefix like Chicken core does, and then
 passes the radix *and* an extra argument indicating whether to force
 exactness (or inexactness?) to the procedure that handles the actual
 number parsing.  This would be an easier fix, but I think this can't be
 done in a backwards-compatible way.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://bugs.call-cc.org/ticket/674>
Chicken Scheme <http://www.call-with-current-continuation.org/>
Chicken Scheme is a compiler for the Scheme programming language.