Re: Table 4 proposal version 0.2...
On 2012-03-22 17:08:39 -0500, Lee Winter wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 4:17 PM, Michel Hack <mhack@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Lee Winter wrote:
> >> But I'll bite. Does the term "exact Infinite result" that you quoted
> >> refer to a 754-standard "infinity", which I would describe as an
> >> overflow, or does it refer to a mathematical infinity such as Cantor's
> >> aleph-one?
> >
> > It refers to one of the ends of the affine completion (two-point
> > compactification) of the Reals -- ONE of the many different mathematical
> > infinities.
>
> Yes, but a "true" infinity. Now what terminating calculation under
> 754 produces such a result?
I'd say that in the context of IEEE 754 only, the main purpose of
the infinities is to handle overflows (thus not true infinities).
But IEEE 754 doesn't imply that the infinities shouldn't have another
use. And P1788 already introduced one, e.g. for interval "bounds" of
unbounded intervals (really unbounded intervals, not bounded ones with
one bound overflowing).
--
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@xxxxxxxxxx> - Web: <http://www.vinc17.net/>
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