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From: straub@jogger.cs.umd.edu (Pablo A. Straub)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.math.symbolic,comp.theory,comp.lang.functional
Subject: Re: do computers believe in real numbers?
Message-ID: <32144@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 28 Mar 91 16:30:34 GMT
References: <7197@munnari.oz.au>
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Reply-To: straub@jogger.cs.umd.edu (Pablo A. Straub)
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Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
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In article <7197@munnari.oz.au> aet@felix.ee.mu.OZ.AU (Albert Edward THOMPSON)
writes:
>I am trying to implement real numbers in a normal-order functional language--
>NOT floating point numbers or any other approximation.
>This is my problem:
>  I don't know what real numbers are 
>  or even whether they can exist in any pragmatic (i.e. computational) sense.

You may want to look at

	Hans Bohem and Robert Cartwright
	Exact real numbers: Formulating real numbers as functions
	In Research Topics in Functional Programming
	Edited by David A. Turner
	University of Texas at Austin Year of Programming Series
	Addison Wesley 1990
----
Pablo A. Straub, straub@cs.umd.edu