# Numeric roadmap? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [June 19, 2006, 9:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785 "2006-06-19T09:41:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 9:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/1 "2006-06-19T09:41:42Z")
Why don’t we have proper support for numbers in Ruby? Numeric, Fixnum, Float, Bignum, Complex, Rational, BigDecimal… What a mess! And they are often incompatible and can’t be safely interchanged! There MUST BE ONE SINGLE AND TRUE COMPLETE NUMERIC TYPE!!! namely, class ArbitraryPrecisionHyperComplexNumber ! P.S. just a joke, raised by Unicode debate :))) ---
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 9:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/2 "2006-06-19T09:54:04Z")
> There MUST BE ONE SINGLE AND TRUE COMPLETE NUMERIC TYPE!!! > namely, class ArbitraryPrecisionHyperComplexNumber ! > > P.S. just a joke, raised by Unicode debate :))) Not a good idea to joke about language design, see Parrot. -tim ---
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/3 "2006-06-19T14:46:25Z")
> There MUST BE ONE SINGLE AND TRUE COMPLETE NUMERIC TYPE!!! > namely, class ArbitraryPrecisionHyperComplexNumber ! You will support quaternions and octonions, right? It had also better support vector rotation by quaternion, or I’m not using it 🙂 > P.S. just a joke, raised by Unicode debate :))) We’ll see 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/4 "2006-06-19T15:21:25Z")
Tim B. wrote: > > There MUST BE ONE SINGLE AND TRUE COMPLETE NUMERIC TYPE!!! > > namely, class ArbitraryPrecisionHyperComplexNumber ! > > > > P.S. just a joke, raised by Unicode debate :))) > > Not a good idea to joke about language design, see Parrot. > -tim Parrot? This parrot is dead, right? – M. Edward (Ed) Borasky > **[世界杯竞猜彩票-世界杯官网竞猜（集团）有限公司](http://www.linuxcapacityplanning.com/)** > > 世界杯竞猜彩票一直以来遵守商业道德，世界杯官网竞猜坚持诚信为本，保证诚实经营。世界杯竞猜彩票先后成为安徽省电子商务协会理事单位、安徽省网商协会会员单位、合肥市电子商务协会理事单位、合肥市服务外包行业协会会员单位、安徽省云计算产业促进会会员单位。世界杯官网竞猜一直保持良好的技术及服务态度，更好地为客户服务。 ---
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/5 "2006-06-19T16:56:44Z")
On 6/19/06, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > > > We’ll see 🙂 > > Why not do what R did — define “scalars” as vectors of length 1 and > > make the vector the basic numeric type? Then you have a conformability problem. How do you multiply a vector times a scalar? If a scalar is represented by a vector of length one, “doubling” a vector of length greater than one won’t work or will require special code. ---
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/6 "2006-06-19T22:22:20Z")
On 19/06/06, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Parrot? This parrot is dead, right? Careful - that’s a Python joke! Paul. ---
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/7 "2006-06-20T04:29:24Z")
stuart yarus wrote: > > Why not do what R did — define “scalars” as vectors of length 1 and > > make the vector the basic numeric type? > > > > > > > Then you have a conformability problem. How do you multiply a vector > times a scalar? If a scalar is represented by a vector of length one, > “doubling” a vector of length greater than one won’t work or will > require special code. > Ah, but R, like S, uses something called the recycling rule. Vector A of > length N times vector B of length M is defined by recycling the shorter > vector from the end back to the beginning. So [3 4 5] \* [3] is [9 12 > 15], [2 3] + [7 8 9] is [9 11 11], etc. – M. Edward (Ed) Borasky > **[世界杯竞猜彩票-世界杯官网竞猜（集团）有限公司](http://www.linuxcapacityplanning.com/)** > > 世界杯竞猜彩票一直以来遵守商业道德，世界杯官网竞猜坚持诚信为本，保证诚实经营。世界杯竞猜彩票先后成为安徽省电子商务协会理事单位、安徽省网商协会会员单位、合肥市电子商务协会理事单位、合肥市服务外包行业协会会员单位、安徽省云计算产业促进会会员单位。世界杯官网竞猜一直保持良好的技术及服务态度，更好地为客户服务。 ---
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/8 "2006-06-19T15:24:52Z")
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > > There MUST BE ONE SINGLE AND TRUE COMPLETE NUMERIC TYPE!!! > > namely, class ArbitraryPrecisionHyperComplexNumber ! > > You will support quaternions and octonions, right? It had also better > support vector rotation by quaternion, or I’m not using it 🙂 > > > P.S. just a joke, raised by Unicode debate :))) > > We’ll see 🙂 > Why not do what R did — define “scalars” as vectors of length 1 and > make the vector the basic numeric type? – M. Edward (Ed) Borasky > **[世界杯竞猜彩票-世界杯官网竞猜（集团）有限公司](http://www.linuxcapacityplanning.com/)** > > 世界杯竞猜彩票一直以来遵守商业道德，世界杯官网竞猜坚持诚信为本，保证诚实经营。世界杯竞猜彩票先后成为安徽省电子商务协会理事单位、安徽省网商协会会员单位、合肥市电子商务协会理事单位、合肥市服务外包行业协会会员单位、安徽省云计算产业促进会会员单位。世界杯官网竞猜一直保持良好的技术及服务态度，更好地为客户服务。 ---
**Author:** ![dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@dimas](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dimas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 4:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/numeric-roadmap/63785/9 "2006-06-20T04:33:05Z")
Paul B. wrote: > On 19/06/06, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Parrot? This parrot is dead, right? > > Careful - that’s a Python joke! > "If all the young ladies were diamonds and rubies, > Then I’d … " Uh … never mind … wrong newsgroup. – M. Edward (Ed) Borasky > **[世界杯竞猜彩票-世界杯官网竞猜（集团）有限公司](http://www.linuxcapacityplanning.com/)** > > 世界杯竞猜彩票一直以来遵守商业道德，世界杯官网竞猜坚持诚信为本，保证诚实经营。世界杯竞猜彩票先后成为安徽省电子商务协会理事单位、安徽省网商协会会员单位、合肥市电子商务协会理事单位、合肥市服务外包行业协会会员单位、安徽省云计算产业促进会会员单位。世界杯官网竞猜一直保持良好的技术及服务态度，更好地为客户服务。