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Re: [Axiom-developer] Question concerning types...


From: Ralf Hemmecke
Subject: Re: [Axiom-developer] Question concerning types...
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 22:03:23 +0200
User-agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (X11/20060719)

HI Cliff,

On 09/16/2006 07:18 PM, C Y wrote:
--- Martin Rubey <address@hidden> wrote:

Currently, you can't. Note that you promise axiom that a1 is a
Quaternion Fraction Integer. However, you don't hold your promise...

How do I not hold it?  I never told it anything about a1 except what
type it is - were did I contradict this?

I don't know exactly what Martin meant with the promise, but think of
the following.

MachineInteger is in libaldor what SingleInteger is in Axiom. For a
particular element of that type you have exactly 32 bits.
Let's appreviate "macro I == MachineInteger;". Now, if you say

m: I;

in the interpreter, the interpreter has to take care of the fact that
this m does not have a value, since any of the 32 bits is reserved for
holding a true MachineInteger. Now assume you do simply

n: I := m + m;

then n does not have a value. However, there is a relation between m and
n. Where do you store that information? Certainly not in MachineInteger.
And hopefully also NOT in the interpreter. There should be a general
domain that handles such things. Something like a typed expression tree
which then could be used by the interpreter to figure out what you mean.
But to write such a domain, is another story.

BTW, why would you want typed variables in the first place?

What you wrote that looked to me like you want to replace the a_i later
with concrete values.

But looking at

m := matrix[[a1,a2],[a3,a4]]

maybe you want

Q == Quaternion Fraction Integer;

m(a1: Q, a2: Q, a3: Q, a4: Q): Matrix Q := matrix[[a1,a2],[a3,a4]];

???

If you want general solving facilities then you actually want m as a
variable and you need to tell the solver what your solution space is.

What you want is to make a1 a variable. Currently, there is no domain
of "Variables, which can take values only in Quaternion Fraction
Integer".

Um.  That's surprising, at least to me.  (I suppose it wouldn't be if I
understood...)  Intuitively I would expect Variable to mean simply "an
unspecified specific instance of a Domain/Type/what have you" with ALL
domains being possible - just so long as you specify the type of the
variable, e.g.:

a1 : Variable(Matrix Quaternion Fraction Integer)

Ask yourself who should take care about the type knowledge that you give
here. Where would you store that information?

A specific example might be with working in dimensional types:  If I
define F as type Force, m as type Mass, and a as type Length/Time^2 I
want to be able to define m1 as type Mass and enter the expression
m*a/m1 into the interperter to return a of type Length/Time^2 without
having to ever specify any particular mass or acceleration.  But I want
that type information to be carried and used in the calculations - in
fact, it is essential.

Yes, that is possible. You know, we have discussed that already. We just
do not yet have proper code. The "dimension.as" file that I sent to the
list on 29-Aug-2006 is a first attempt but not as fully functional as
you would like. But don't worry, we come to that. However, I think that
it is not going to work in SPAD.

Ralf





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