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Re: Motion 6



I vote NO on Motion 6.

There are good reasons for interval data types to be opaque. This means that the internal representation of an interval should only be accessible through intrinsic functions supplied with the given language support for interval data types.

The advantage is that hardware manufacturers are thereby free to choose an internal representation that best suits their machine architecture. It also means that any "standard" internal representation cannot act as an roadblock to mathematical and implementation innovations that produce superior quality results in terms of speed and width.

Ideally, this leaves only one thing to be done in an interval standard: Define the set of values that any compliant interval implementation must contain. How such a standard is implemented can then be totally left up to the imagination and creativity of different implementers.

As far as I can tell, this most important definition does not yet exist.


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