From: Austin Ziegler <Austin.Ziegler@...>
Date: 2004-05-13T23:53:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Major Addition Bug?

> Jeff Mitchell <quixoticsycophant@yahoo.com> wrote on
> 13 May 2004 02.59:

> Coming from a background in mathematics, I have personal 
> affection for:
> 
> class Float
>    def within?(epsilon, other)
>       abs(self - other) < epsilon
>    end
> end
> 
> EPSILON = 1e-8
> # ...
> if a.within?(EPSILON, b)
>    # ...
> 
> I read this as, "if a is within epsilon of b" -- a common 
> phrase in analysis.

Mmm. I might write that as:

  class Float
    def within?(other, epsilon = 1e-8)
      abs(self - other) < epsilon
    end
  end

It messes up the nice readability, but you don't have to type EPSILON
all the time, either. Alternatively, you could do:

  class Float
    def in_epsilon?(other, epsilon = 1e-8)
      abs(self - other) < epsilon
    end
  end

That gives you the same functionality and minimal typing, but is perhaps
more readable.

-austin
--
austin ziegler * austin.ziegler@evault.com