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Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2023 12:59:37 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: Re: Parameterised 'Image Attributes
From: Stephen Davies <joviangm@gmail.com>
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On Wednesday, 23 August 2023 at 17:16:12 UTC+1, Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> On 2023-08-23 12:20, Stephen Davies wrote: 
> 
> > Actually, I think it might also be nice if Float'Trim_Image(X) returned 
> > a string that only used exponential notation for very large or very 
> > small values (which seems to be the default behaviour in Python).
> To use the shortest representation for the given precision unless 
> specified otherwise: 
> 
> http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de/ada/strings_edit.htm#6 
> 
> Ada 'Image attributes have "typographic quality" in plain contradiction 
> to the claim being for debugging purpose. That is why the plus sign is 
> always represented by a space and why floating-point representation is 
> always selected even for exact zero and the way the exponent part is 
> formatted. The typographic idea is to have *same looking* output. Note, 
> even if the output is mathematically incorrect as in the case of 
> floating-point numbers. 'Image considers precision and accuracy same, 
> which is *always* wrong when dealing with floating-point numbers.
> > Different names would then be needed (Tidy_Image and Tidy_Width?).
> It takes several parameters to control the behavior in a reasonable way.
> -- 
How about an attribute called something like User_Image
where programmers should make no assumption about the
generated strings and implementations can provide
OS-specific ways to customise things like leading
space/plus/neither, decimal separator character, digit
grouping character/spacing, exponential notation, enum
casing, etc.