Re: Complex, Rational, etc.

On Apr 8, 2008, at 4:56 PM, David Flanagan wrote:
> Here are some things I understand:
>
> 1) Complex and Rational are now in core and implemented in C, and so  
> are presumably faster.
>
> 2) I still need to require complex.rb if I want Math methods to  
> handle complex numbers.

Right, but it is currently broken, in that it generates a warning on  
use.
>
> a) When should I include rational.rb?

It looks pretty vestigial to me--I'd vote for its removal.


> b) Is mathn still useful?  Is it still supported?

Without it 1/2 is always 0. With it, it becomes Rational(1/2)

dave[RUBY3/Book 17:20:34] irb
irb(main):001:0> 1/2
=> 0
irb(main):002:0> require 'rational'
=> true
irb(main):003:0> 1/2
=> 0
irb(main):004:0> require 'mathn'
=> true
irb(main):005:0> 1/2
=> Rational(1, 2)

> c) What are the various ways to do division, and how do they differ?

I have a reference section for that... :) I'll be pushing a new beta  
at the end of the week.



Dave