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by adrian_b
101 days ago
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I consider this as a very bad solution, because it can lead to very subtle bugs. The correct solution for any programming language is to define all the 14 relational operators that are required by any partially-ordered set, instead of defining only the 6 of them that are sufficient for a totally-ordered set. If the programming language fails to define all 14 operators, then you must always test the operands for NaNs, before using any of the 6 ALGOL relational operators. If you consider this tedious, then you must unmask the invalid operation exception and take care to handle this exception. If invalid operations generate exceptions, then the floating-point numbers become a totally-ordered set and NaN cannot exist (if a NaN comes from an external source, it will also generate an exception, while internally no NaN will ever be generated). |
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