Adding new object types WAS: Operations on inf

Raymond write:

> >>>>> "Stavros" == Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at alum.mit.edu> writes:
> 
>     Stavros> 1.  (*) text/plain          ( ) text/html           
>     Stavros> On 3/8/07, Barton Willis <willisb at unk.edu> wrote:
>     >> 
>     >> I've always hoped for a straightforward way to add new objects to
>     >> simplus and friends -- arrays, intervals, big oh, little oh, quad
>     >> precision floats, ... By straightforward, I mean a way to add new
>     >> objects without hacking simplus and friends.
>     >> 
> 
>     Stavros> Let's use ((bigfloat simp interval) ...), ((bigfloat simp quadfl
> oat) ...)
>     Stavros> etc. to represent new data types. We have the bigfloat package t
> ake care of
>     Stavros> dispatching.  There are some places in Maxima which break the bi
> gfloat
>     Stavros> abstraction (notably checking for sign or zero by looking inside
> ), but we
>     Stavros> should be able to remove those pretty easily.
> 
> I'm guessing that Barton was thinking of something more CLOS-like.  I
> think it would fit in pretty well with number-like objects.  It just
> doesn't fit in very well with the rest of maxima.

Yes, I also think that this (something CLOS-like) should be the way to
go. Making maxima even more tangled than it already is woulf be the
wrong way I think - it is difficult enough to understand what is going
on as it is now. New datatypes masquerading as bigfloats ? No.

'Andreas