FW: Couple of things

[J. David Beutel]

Is the issue here that the 128-bit decimal number is inconsistent in the 
C++ library?  If so, then another option is to support it but just let 
it be inconsistent.  Or does SDL have a use-case for inter-platform 
communication?  Unless all of the application's math remains inside SDL, 
such inconsistency seems inevitable with mixed languages and platforms.  
Is it better to have consistency within a given platform?

Cheers,
11011011

"Daniel Leuck" <dan at ikayzo.com> wrote on Monday, November 13, 2006 09:38:27:
>
> So you vote for #2?  Does anyone else have an opinion?
>
>  
>
> BTW- I included decimal because two of our users in the finance sector 
> wanted a type accurate enough to handle currency.  In Java this means 
> BigDecimal.  In C# "decimal" is used.
>
>  
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* Jesse Weaver [mailto:pianohacker at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Monday, November 13, 2006 8:52 AM
> *To:* sdl-developers at ikayzo.org
> *Subject:* Re: FW: Couple of things
>
>  
>
>  
>
> On 11/13/06, *Daniel Leuck* <dan at ikayzo.com <mailto:dan at ikayzo.com>> 
> wrote:
>
> Hi Jesse,
>
>  
>
> The Mono issue appears to be a bug with the Mono compiler (those two 
> interface methods are not ambiguous), but I will look into what can be 
> done.
>
>     Re: I would think that a 32-bit integer and a 64-bit floating
>     point would be enough.
>
>      
>
>     The two options I would consider are:
>
>        1. Make the 128 bit decimal type an optional feature.
>        2. Redefine decimal as the most accurate decimal type available
>           on the platform.
>
>      
>
>     I am leaning strongly towards one because I don't like the notion
>     of something having significantly different meaning on different
>     platforms.  Any objections?
>
>      
>
>     Dan
>
>      
>
>
> Well, there is one problem: right now, Java and C# support the 128-bit 
> number, and C++ won't. This effectively means that we'll have two 
> versions of the SDL language. Since the decimal type is probably only 
> needed for special uses, this should be okay, but it could lead to 
> problems down the road.
>
> -- 
> Jesse
>
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