[Gcl-devel] Re: numerical quirks

[Raymond Toy]

Peter Wood wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Wed, Dec 11, 2002 at 12:48:51AM -0500, Raymond Toy wrote:
>
> > > (expt 2 (expt 2 (expt 2 (expt 2 2)))) causes SBCL and CMUCL to barf.
> >
> > I think barf is too harsh.  They signal a continuable error saying the 
> > exponent is rather large and gives you the option of continuing the 
> > computation.
>
>
> Ok, I take 'barf' back.  I wasn't trying to start an argument.

Neither was I.  I just wanted to say what it really did.

> Fussing over stuff like (sin -1) is out of place at this stage, IMHO.
> Thats what I was trying to say.  We want sufficient bread and butter
> on the table before we can complain about the lack of champagne and
> caviar.

Indeed.  But perhaps some of the problems are easy to fix and if so, why
not fix them when they become known.  (Does gcl have a bug tracking
system.  This would be a good place to put these kinds of bugs for
later.)

Ray

P.S.  I was a gcl user for a long time, until I found CMUCL which did 
the kinds of numerical computations better.  (A wish item for gcl: 
support non-consing (complex double-float) arithmetic.  That would be 
really cool, making it only the second Lisp to do that.)  I still like 
gcl and I'm glad someone has taken over maintenance of it.