Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!bernina!mrys From: mrys@bernina.ethz.ch (Michael Rys) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Lisp vs APL for numeric work (was Re: Fortran vs. C for numerical work) Message-ID: <1990Dec19.201059.16458@bernina.ethz.ch> Date: 19 Dec 90 20:10:59 GMT References: <1990Dec12.011232.11101@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> <13615@chaph.usc.edu> <1990Dec12.175323.8958@Think.COM> Reply-To: mrys@bernina.UUCP (Michael Rys) Organization: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zuerich Lines: 36 In article <1990Dec12.175323.8958@Think.COM> barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) writes: >In article <13615@chaph.usc.edu> jeenglis@alcor.usc.edu (Joe English Muffin) writes: >> The numerical facilities in Common >>Lisp are second only to those in APL among the most >>common languages (well, those that I know of >>anyway), including Fortran. > >I'd hazard to say that they're even better than APL. Does APL have >arbitrary precision rational numbers, complex numbers (I think they're an >experimental feature in some APLs), and multiple floating point formats? APR numbers - no, you would have to write your own functions. complex numbers - yes, it should be in the upcoming extended APL standard. All modern APL dialects (APL II, SAX, J etc) have them. What do you mean with multiple floating point formats? IEEE and such? I have never seen that in an APL dialect, but I have never come across the situation where I could use different formats. > >Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp. > >barmar@think.com >{uunet,harvard}!think!barmar Cheers.../Michael +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Michael Rys, V. Conzett Str. 34; CH-8004 Zuerich; Switzerland | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | UUCP: mrys@ethz.UUCP or EAN: mrys@ifi.ethz.ch | | mrys@bernina.UUCP IPSANet: mrys@ipsaint | | Voice: +41 1 242 35 87 DECNet: ETHZ::mrys | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ -- Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darueber muss man schweigen. -- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus