[gambit-list] API to parse floats in Scheme
Lassi Kortela
lassi at lassi.io
Wed May 12 18:04:47 EDT 2021
Thanks for replying.
> I’m sorry, but I don’t know what the problem is that will be solved here.
>
> The inherently difficult part of inputting or outputting floating-point numbers is converting between a human-readable base 10 representation and a machine-usable base two representation while maintaining maximal accuracy (with some side conditions for special values, overflow, underflow, etc.)
>
> Are you proposing that this is what this pre-SRFI will do?
Yes, exactly! Each file format and programming language has a slightly
different number syntax, so parsers for those are probably not fruitful
to standardize. (RnRS string->number is serviceable for languages other
than Scheme, but it supports such a wide range of syntax that one must
be very careful to give it pre-validated input only. This is easy to get
wrong.) A fundamental `make-inexact-real` procedure would be simple and
useful. In the other reply, Marc proposes a better interface for it than
what we came up with.
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