Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c++:2139 comp.lang.c:14408 comp.lang.forth:685 comp.lang.fortran:1552 comp.lang.misc:2222 comp.arch:7382 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!think!barmar From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.forth,comp.lang.fortran,comp.lang.misc,comp.arch Subject: Re: Assembly or .... Message-ID: <32355@think.UUCP> Date: 30 Nov 88 16:45:54 GMT References: <1388@aucs.UUCP> <729@convex.UUCP> <1961@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <8993@smoke.BRL.MIL> <1032@l.cc.purdue.edu> <21390@apple.Apple.COM> <771@quintus.UUCP> Sender: news@think.UUCP Reply-To: barmar@kulla.think.com.UUCP (Barry Margolin) Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA Lines: 15 In article <771@quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: >In fact, if we define SIGN(x) = if x = 0 then 0 else x/ABS(x), you can >extend DIV and MOD to the complex numbers as well, not that it's quite >as useful... Which is, in fact, precisely how Common Lisp (which has complex and rational numbers built in) defines SIGNUM. This definition computes the unit vector colinear with the vector in the complex plane that the original number specifies. Barry Margolin Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar