Re: [AC21.5] Texinfo manual kilo-patch

>>>>> "Hrvoje" == Hrvoje Niksic <[email protected]> writes:

    Hrvoje> Think of it this way: any FP number can be converted to a
    Hrvoje> rational without loss of precision, while the reverse
    Hrvoje> doesn't hold.

True, but you do lose information: all FP numbers by definition have
limited, known precision, but conversion to a rational claims that
you've acquired an infinite amount of precision from somewhere.
Again, this conversion is something that some, probably most, users
would appreciate, but others will not.

As Jeff points out, Common Lisp does not convert from float to
rational without user intervention.  I think the Common Lisp
arithmetic rules have been incredibly carefully thought out; we should
follow them where possible.  Not to mention that conforming to a bad
standard is better than inventing a good non-standard.


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