Re: Integers and Mathematical Correctness

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

Just a quick look at my C book here indicates that there are functions
"floor" and "ceil", but I didn't see anything like 'Mantissa and 'Exponent
and so on. Not to mention the fact that they are not exactly connected to
the data type, so there is no real distinction between, say, a Float and a
Long_Float. (I didn't even bother to check for equivalents to things like
'Range, 'First and 'Last - althought there are probably ways of getting
there - just not nearly so slick and convenient.)

I grant you that other languages can and sometimes do provide similar
features. Just not as an inherent part of the language describing the
characteristics of data types, objects, etc. I think attributes are one of
the more handy features of Ada - especially for math oriented computing -
and one that is not always duplicated as thoroughly or as nicely in other
languages.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Richard Riehle" <richard@adaworks.com> wrote in message
news:3BE4232D.6CC9ACA3@adaworks.com...
>
> In other languages, these are provided as functions.   In Ada, they are
> attributes that
> behave as if they were functions.
>