From: Mark Hubbart <discord@...>
Date: 2004-09-16T08:52:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Bignum Troubles


On Sep 15, 2004, at 4:12 PM, James Edward Gray II wrote:

> On Sep 15, 2004, at 6:05 PM, Robert Klemme wrote:
>
>> Just one other remark, there is a lib that changes the semantics of 
>> int division.  I don't remember the name though.  So 5 / 3 is not 
>> always a Fixnum.
>
> Is this a standard lib?

Yes, Rational numbers are defined in rational.rb. Just require 
'rational'. 'mathn', also in the stdlib, includes 'rational', 'complex' 
and 'matrix', and adds a little extra glue (as well as implementing a 
"Prime" class).

Aside:
It's amazing what you can find in the stdlib; when I was first getting 
familiar with Ruby, I kept getting surprised at what I found there :) 
It's also amazing how nicely things tie in; all the new Numeric types 
are automatically created in appropriate circumstances:

   require 'mathn'
     ==>true
   5/8
     ==>5/8
   5/8*2
     ==>5/4
   5/8+4/3
     ==>47/24
   Math.sqrt -4
     ==>Complex(0, 2)

cheers,
Mark

> James Edward Gray II
>
>