Hi, maybe I should explain why I am considering this. My background is in engineering (mechanical) and here complex numbers are considered as extremely exotic. For me as an engineer the idea that the cubic root of -1 should be complex sounds absurd. Most engineers probably have the opinion that -1 has only one cubic root anyway! I am using GiNaC for programming a tool that I use in engineering. Am 21.09.19 um 18:00 schrieb Richard B. Kreckel:
Hi,
This is a CLN topic. Let's take this thread to cln-list.
Your proposal seems to suggest that CLN pick another branch cut for roots if a certain global flag is set.
I'm sceptical about introducing global flags which control the computation in a way that results in very different numerical results - it looks like calling for problems. Admitted, there are global flags (cl_inhibit_floating_point_underflow and those dealing with I/O), and rounding control is well known from IEEE754. But returning a complex number which is far away from the conventional result in the complex plane is a different thing. I'm not aware of any such flag in another system; is there one?
I'ld like to hear what others think.
-richy.