cfloat Specification Sheet

Computer Algebra Kit (c) 1993,00 by Comp.Alg.Objects. All Rights Reserved.

Float

Inherits from: CAObject

Maturity Index: Immature

Class Description

It is planned to make this class evolve into an Objective C class for arbitrary precision floating-point arithmetic. Currently, Float is merely a Computer Algebra Kit compatible interface to plain C floating-point arithmetic. Instances are object wrappers around the float datatype; arithmetic is subject to the same limitations, round-off errors etc. as in C.

Support for floating-point arithmetic is minimal in the Computer Algebra Kit; it is possible to convert results that are obtained by exact arithmetic to a numerical approximation (see the method asNumerical of Integer, Matrix, Polynomial etc.) for further processing by numerical analysis software.

Method types

Creation

Identity

Comparing

Addition

Multiplication

Printing

Methods

new

+new
Creates an floating-point object equal to zero.

floatValue:

+floatValue:(float)floatValue
Creates an object with value equal to floatValue.

str:

+str:(STR)aString
Returns a new float object given a string aString, or returns nil if the method can't parse aString. This method acts like the ANSI function atof().

floatValue

- (float)floatValue
Returns the value of the object.

floatValue:

-floatValue:(float)f
Creates an object with value f.

zero

-zero
Returns a new reference to a shared float instance with value equal to zero.

one

-one
Returns a new reference to a shared float instance with value equal to one.

minusOne

-minusOne
Returns a new reference to the float minus one.

printsLeadingSign

- (BOOL)printsLeadingSign
Returns YES if the number is negative.

printOn:

-printOn:(IOD)aFile
Prints the floating-point number to aFile according to the '%g' format of the ANSI function printf().