From: Mathieu Bouchard <matju@...>
Date: 2001-03-11T06:30:58+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:12396] Re: Math package

On Sat, 10 Mar 2001, Johann Hibschman wrote:
> > why is it Math.sin(42.0) and not (42.0).sin ?
> The only functions which should be methods are those which are
> required to operate with the type, and sine isn't that fundamental.

Okay, what do you define as fundamental? Numeric#- can trivially be
obtained in terms of Numeric#+ and Numeric#-@.

> Otherwise, we'd be left wondering if "sinh" is a method of Float or a
> member of the SpecialFunctions module.

Well, it isn't so special, it's just proc{|x|(x-1/x)/2}.call Math.exp x;
what make sin,atan2,log,exp special is that they can't be easily obtained
in terms of other operations.

But I get your point.

(btw I'm not suggesting that sin should be in Float; just wanted to get
opinions about it)

matju