number vs. real poll

[Charles]

If you can set "number" to be "int16" then what happens for this code?

a = 1.4
b = 1.6
c = 0

[hopscc]

simplistically same as if you'd done

Code: Select all

a as int16 = 1.4
b as int16 = 1.6
c as int16 = 0


or probably more correctly

Code: Select all

a = 1.4 to int16
b = 1.6 to int16
c = 0 to int16


If you setup literals or defaults that dont make sense for the numeric type mapping you still get errors....

[Charles]

"a = 1.6" should not give "1".

-number shall remain an option for fractional values like float and decimal.

[jonathandavid]

I think what hopscc meant initially is that if the user sets number to int, then functions like "def f(x as number) as number" will take and return an int. This might make sense for applications like number theory in which ints are used all the time, and in which we might be interested in using number for everything and later on decide if we want number to be int, int64, BigInt or whatever.

However, I agree with Chuck that hopscc is wrong in suggesting that code such as "a = 1.6" should lead to "a" taking the type "int". Type inference should be more important in such case. No matter what "number" translates too, "a = 1.6" should always lead to "a" being of a fractional type. Otherwise things would be weird and confusing.

[Charles]

I think what hopscc meant initially is that if the user sets number to int, then functions like "def f(x as number) as number" will take and return an int. This might make sense for applications like number theory in which ints are used all the time, and in which we might be interested in using number for everything and later on decide if we want number to be int, int64, BigInt or whatever.

But for that, I would make "int" configurable as in: cobra -int:int64 ...

Although that seems very low priority compared to other items.

[jonathandavid]

Although that seems very low priority compared to other items.

Agreed.