From: Christoph <chr_news@...>
Date: 2002-05-30T23:08:41+09:00
Subject: RE: Infinity (?!)

> From: Paul Brannan [mailto:pbrannan@atdesk.com]
...
> A Float is implemented by a C double.  A Fixnum is a C long.  In C, a
> long can be only a number, but a double has many special values
> (particularly NaN, inifinity, and positive/negative zero).

It should be noted that Float has many Infinities - as in

p     2.0 / 0 ==  2.0 / 0      # => true but
p  (2.0 / 0).equal? (2.0 / 0)  # => false

> 
> For Ruby to work any other way would surprise me.

True - at times it also is convenient to add ``absolute +/- Infinity''.
These two numerical Objects are by definition bigger or  equal 
(respectively smaller or equal) then any other numerical Object, 
including +/- Float infinities.


/Christoph