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Date: 23 Jul 93 18:32:55 GMT
From: psinntp!vitro.com!news@uunet.uu.net  (Mikey)
Subject: Re: Underscore ("_") in numeric literals
Message-ID: <1993Jul23.183255.588@vitro.com>
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <22lte3$nqm@nic.lth.se> dag@control.lth.se (Dag Bruck) writes:
>
>I would like to know to what extent people use undescore ("_")
>characters in numeric literals, e.g., "100_000".  Please send me your
>opinions, etc.
>
>I would be particularly grateful if people could point me to Ada
>source archives so I can make some simple statistical analysis of real
>code, or if you would like to "grep" your own code and let me know
>what you got.
>
>The reason is that the C++ standardization committees have received a
>proposal to allow "_" in numeric literals.  We are interested in some
>sort of indication if people find this feature useful, and if it is
>commonly used in languages that have it.  If nobody uses "_" there is
>no reason to add it to C++, and if it provides a significant
>improvement in readability, C++ could use all the help it can get :-)
>
>
>			Thanks for your help,
>
>			Dag Bruck
>

As an amateur astronomer, I write many programs that involve numerical
analysis, orbit determination, orbit plots, etc., etc. I find that I use alot
of numerical constants in double-precision that I believe would be much easier
to update (when necessary - most astronomical constants don't change much :) )
and/or examine if I had the use of the "_". My Ada usage is limited to at work,
where I am the company's Ada instructor. I personally like the "_" and would
like to see it in C++. As for amount of usage; I would say about 10-20% of the
time in product code, but almost 100% in my sample code and exercises for my
Ada course material.

Mike M.
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