This is going to be an interesting discussion.
In the upcoming GNU Tools Cauldron meeting the representation of complex
numbers in GCC will be discussed from the following "starting point":
"Complex numbers are used to describe many physical phenomenons and are
of prime importance in data signal processing. Nevertheless, despite
being part of the C and C++ standards since C99, they are still not
completely first class citizens in mainstream compilers."
*This* is from the Fortran 66 Standard (http://moene.org/~toon/f66.pdf -
a photocopy of the 1966 Standard):
- - - - -
Chapter 4. Data Types:
...
4.2.4 Complex Type.
A complex datum is processor approximation to the value of a complex number.
...
- - - - -
I can recall people complaining about the way complex arithmetic was
handled by compilers since the late 70s.
This is even obvious in weather forecasting software I have to deal with
*today* (all written in Fortran). Some models use complex variables to
encode the "spectral" (wave-decomposed) computations in parts where that
is useful - others just "degrade" those algorithms to explicitly use reals.
Kind regards,
--
Toon Moene - e-mail: t...@moene.org - phone: +31 346 214290
Saturnushof 14, 3738 XG Maartensdijk, The Netherlands
