Thread Links Date Links
Thread Prev Thread Next Thread Index Date Prev Date Next Date Index

Re: Discussion paper: what are the level 2 datums?



On 2010-10-09 12:41:42 +0200, Arnold Neumaier wrote:
> The only reasonable alternative I can see (but do not propose to use)
> is the treatment of Empty, where (at the expence of more complex
> executing formulas) one could sensibly argue to take
>   inf(Empty)=+inf, sup(Empty)=+inf, mid(Empty)=0,  rad(Empty)=-inf
> in place of NaN for all four results.

I suppose you meant sup(Empty)=-inf.

Concerning mid(Empty), I don't like 0, because it would be an
arbitrary choice (just like +inf + -inf is not 0). IMHO it should
be undefined at Level 1 and NaN at Level 2.

Concernant rad(Empty), -inf makes sense if we regard rad(x) as
(sup(x) - inf(x)) / 2. But NaN would be fine too.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@xxxxxxxxxx> - Web: <http://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <http://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Arénaire project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)