newRPL: symbolic numbers

[Nigel (UK)]

(12-22-2014 11:01 PM)Claudio L. Wrote:  BTW, reals within symbolics are already treated as first class citizens, so quoted reals will work just fine:
'1.5/4' DUP * EVAL returns 0.14.... even in exact mode on the 50g because of the real number in the expression. This same code returns the symbolic '9/64' in newRPL.

Am I missing something? Could this achieve the goal of eliminating the mode switching nightmare? Any problems that could arise from doing this?

Suppose I have an expression 'r=d/2'. If I store '7' or '7.0' (both quoted) in d, I'd expect to get 7/2 for r when this expression is evaluated. If I store 7.0, I'd expect to get 3.5 and not 7/2. I'm not sure what I'd expect if 7 (without the quotes) was stored in d.

My point is that real numbers or numbers in standard form are generally not intended to be exact. Unless they are deliberately quoted they should stay approximate, even if they appear inside a quoted expression. If this is what you intend your idea seems excellent.

Nigel (UK)